The Octavius of Minucius Felix

HRfSTtAN LITERATURE

THE'

OF

iMiNucius FELIX!

J, H. FREESE,-M.A,

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY Of
CALIFORNIA

SAN DIEGO

TRANSLATIONS OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
SERIES II

LATIN TEXTS

THE "OCTAVIUS"

OF

MINUCIUS FELIX

OF CHRI5HM
LITERATURE . SERIES II

LATIN TEXTS

THE OCTAVIUS OF
MINUCIUS FELIX

By J-H-FREESE

SOCIETY FOR. PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOW LEDGE. London
The Macmillan Companu .

PREFATORY NOTE

THE text from which the present translation has been
made is that of Waltzing (1912) in the Teubner series.
In a few instances, an emendation has been adopted,
where his reading seemed to admit of no satisfactory
rendering. For the rearrangement of part of the matter
in xxii.-xxiv. see his Studio, Minuciana.

The amount of literature which has grown up round
this extremely interesting little work, especially during the
last fifty years, may almost without exaggeration be called
enormous, considering the shortness of the original —
about 13,000 words. Within the present limits it was
impossible to give an exhaustive list of such treatises and
articles, but one will be found in Waltzing's Bibliography
(see Introd. § i), which contains the names of no fewer
than 150 scholars who have written on the subject.1

In preparing the translation, the variorum edition in
Migne's Patrologia Cursus, and those of Holden and
Leonard have been consulted throughout. Waltzing's
Commentary and special Lexicon have unfortunately not
been available.

1 See also Introduction to the Teubner edition.

CONTENTS

PACE

INTRODUCTION . . v . . ix-XXV

§ I. THE TEXT .... ix-Xl

§ 2. THE AUTHOR .... xi-xiii

S •*. THE DATE . . . xiii-Xvi

O v

§ 4. THE DIALOGUE . . . Xvi-XX

§ 5. THE ARGUMENT .... XX-XXV

TRANSLATION ...... 27-98

INDEX ....... 99-102

INTRODUCTION

§ i. THE TEXT

THE only MS. of the Octavius is a ninth-century MS.
in the Paris Library (no. 1661). It was at one time in
the Vatican Library, but was presented by Pope Leo X to
the French King Francis I. There is an eleventh-cen-
tury copy of it at Brussels. The MS. contains seven
books of Arnobius' Adversus Gentts, the seventh book
being followed by the note Arnobii liber vii explicit
incipit liber viii. (" here the seventh book of Arnobius
ends, and the eighth begins "). The copyist had confused
Octavus and Octavius, and his mistake has preserved the
treatise which otherwise might have been lost. While
the MS. was still in the Vatican, the editio princeps was
published at Rome by Faustus Sabaeus of Brescia,
Keeper of the Vatican Library, who is said to have origin-
ally found the MS. in Germany or Switzerland. In this
and two subsequent editions, one by the famous Erasmus,
the Octavius appears as the eighth book of Arnobius.
But the references in Lactantius and Jerome (see § 2) to
a certain Minucius Felix, who had written a treatise called
Octavius, and the subject-matter of the so-called eighth
book, which had little in common with Arnobius, put
the learned on the right track. The mistake was dis-
covered and rectified by the French scholar Franciscus
Balduinus (Frangois Baudouin), who published it as

x INTRODUCTION

an independent work (Heidelberg, 1560). Since then
numerous editions have been published, of which the
most important are the following : J. Wowerus (Wou-
wers), 1603; N. Rigaltius(Rigault), 1643 ; J. G. Lindner,
1760; in Migne's Patrologice Cursus, iii. (1844), with
variorum notes and excursuses; H. A. Holden (1853),
with commentary, the only English edition. The first
really critical edition is that of C. Halm (1867), in Cor-
pus ecclesiasticorum Scriptorum, ii. Since then ever-
increasing attention has been devoted to the little work,
especially during the last fifty years. Later editions : E.
Bahrens (1886); H. Boenig (1903); A. Schone (1913);
F. Leonard (Namur, 1883). But the scholar who has
done most for Minucius is J. P. Waltzing, from whom we
have an edition with notes and commentary (Bruges,
1909); Lexicon Minucianum (1909); text (1912), in the
Teubner series : Studia Minuciana (1906) ; bibliography
of the subject in Musee Beige, vi., 1902. There are
English translations by D. Dalrymple (Lord Hailes),
1781, 1854; in Clark's Ante-Nicene Christian Library ;
A. A. Brodribb, "freely translated," 1903; German, by
A. Bieringer, 1871 ; B. Dombart, 1881 ; French by J. P.
Waltzing, 1903, A. Genoude, 1839; also Italian and
Dutch translations. An English edition of the text with
notes, embodying the results of the latest investigations,
is a desideratum.

The following general works may also be consulted :
Herzog-Hauck, Real-cncycloptidie fur protestantische
Theologie (1903) : O. Bardenhewer, Geschichtt der altkirch-
lichen Litteratur, i. (1913) ; Smith and Wace, Dictionary
of Christian Biography (1877) ; Murray's Dictionary of
Christian Biography (1911); Teuffel's History of Roman
Literature, ii. (1900) ; M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen

INTRODUCTION xi

Litteratur, iii. (1896); P. Monceaux, Histoire litteraire
dc rAfrique chretienne (1901); G. Boissier, La fin du
paganisme (1891); C. T. Cruttwell, A Literary History
of Early Christianity (1893).

§2. THE AUTHOR

Hardly anything is known of Marcus Minucius Felix,
author of the Octavius, and competitor with Lactantius
for the title of the " Christian Cicero." Our information
is derived from Lactantius and Jerome, supplemented by
indications in the dialogue itself. The testimony of
Lactantius (Inst. Div. v., i, 21) is a somewhat lukewarm
appreciation of Minucius's efforts as an apologist : " And
if by chance any of the learned have devoted themselves
to the study of it [Christian truth], they have shown
themselves inadequate in its defence. Of those with
whose writings I am acquainted, Minucius Felix was
a distinguished advocate. His book, entitled Octavius,
shows that he might have been an efficient champion of
the truth, if he had given his attention entirely to the
subject." Jerome (de Viris illustribus, 58, Epp. 70, 5)
lays special stress on his learning : " Minucius Felix, a
distinguished advocate at Rome, wrote a dialogue named
Octavius, the subject of which is a discussion between a
Christian and a heathen ; another work (On Fate, or
Against the Astrologers), which passes under his name,
although it is the work of a man of ability, does not
appear to me to be written in a corresponding style
to the Octavius " ; "I now come to the Latins. Minu-
cius Felix, an advocate of Rome, in his treatise called
Octavius, and in another work, Against the Astrologers
(unless this is incorrectly ascribed to him), has left no
heathen writer unexploited." In his Commentary on

xii INTRODUCTION

Isaiah (viii. praef.) he mentions him amongst other well-
known writers distinguished for their " flow of eloquence."
It will be noted that the above extracts mention another
work to which reference is made in the dialogue itself (36).
Whether Minucius ever wrote such a work, or whether
it was the production of a forger who traded on the
reference to it in the dialogue, it is impossible to say ;
in any case, if it ever existed it is now lost.

The information concerning the author contained in
the treatise itself is meagre. It is evident that he was
a man of considerable education, well read in profane
literature (especially Latin), and his style, in addition
to a certain legal atmosphere pervading it, shows that
he had been well trained in one of the rhetorical schools.
He appears to have been converted to Christianity late
in life, having been preceded in that step by Octavius,
his deceased friend and intimate companion of his
youth, from whom the dialogue takes its name. It is
evident from his own confession that before his con-
version he was a bigoted heathen and he speaks quite
frankly of the extra cruelties inflicted upon obstinate
Christians in a sort of contemptuous pity, in order to
make them confess their supposed crimes and so save
their lives. He had a flourishing practice as a lawyer
in Rome, but does not appear to have held any public
office, at any rate not after his conversion ; he explicitly
states that anything of the kind would have involved
a violation of Christian principles.

As to his nationality, the French-African school of
critics is strongly in favour of his being an African, like
the other interlocutors of the dialogue. It is argued
that no born Roman would have allowed the attacks
upon the founders of Rome and the growth of the

INTRODUCTION xiii

empire to appear in a work for which he was respon-
sible; that he is coupled with other African writers
(Arnobius, Cyprian, Tertullian) by Lactantius and
Jerome ; that he mentions various African deities,
such as Punic Juno, Baal-Saturn, and King Juba;
that the Latinity smacks of Fronto and Apuleius, and
that Fronto is twice cited as a compatriot ; that the
name occurs in African inscriptions. But the general
opinion of scholars is that he was a Roman, and that
his African origin is not proven.

§3. THE DATE

It is generally agreed that the Octavius was written
at Rome, but the date of its composition is not settled,
and in the absence of further decisive evidence, is likely
to remain so.

The mention of Fronto (c. 100-170) by Minucius and
of Minucius by Lactantius (c. 260-340) roughly gives
the possible limits as 160-300, which most scholars
narrow still further to 160-250. The meagre notices in
Jerome and Lactantius are of no assistance in settling
the date, and attempts to show that one of the Greek
apologists of the second century, especially Athenagoras
(ft. 1 80), served as a model are regarded as unsuccessful.
But there is undoubtedly a close relationship between
the Octavius, Tertullian's Apologeticus (written 197), and
Cyprian's Quod idola dii non sint (c, 245). Cyprian's
short treatise draws freely upon Minucius and Tertullian,
while the resemblance between these two is so obvious
that it is impossible to resist the conclusion that either
Minucius copied from Tertullian or Tertullian from
Minucius. A third alternative has been suggested : that
both copied from a third treatise of a similar nature,

xiv INTRODUCTION

now lost. But there is no evidence of the existence of
such a treatise, and it is difficult to understand how, if
it had ever existed, it could have disappeared so com-
pletely without leaving any trace behind. The question
therefore remains : which of the two wrote first —
Minucius or Tertullian? — although its solution would
only enable us to assign an approximate, not a definite,
date to the composition. The Octavius and the Apolo-
geticus contain no certain allusions to contemporary
events, and a detailed comparison of the texts has led
to no result. Lactantius puts Minucius before Tertul-
lian, Jerome Tertullian before Minucius, but the nature
of their testimony, in which there is probably no idea
of chronological order, renders it of little value.

In early times Tertullian's claim to priority was
regarded as incontrovertible, but the researches of
Ebert led him to the opposite conviction. After the
publication of his essay,1 it was for some time considered
that Minucius was first in order of time, and had the
right to be considered the first Christian apologist. The
mention of Fronto, on the assumption that he was alive
at the time, was held to show that the Octavius was
written between 150 and 200.

But the discovery of some inscriptions at Cirta
(modern Constantine), dated 210-217, caused a revival
of the controversy.2 On these appears the name of one
Caecilius Natalis, a native of Cirta, and its magistrate in
210, who has been identified as the Csecilius Natalis,
who is one of the interlocutors in the Octavius. If this
identity could be proved, the question would be solved.

1 Tertuttiaris Verhdltnis zu Minucius Felix (Leipzig, 1870);
see also his Allgemeine Geschichte der Lit. des Mittelalters (1889).
* See H. Dessau in Hermes, xv. (1880).

INTRODUCTION xv

The priority of Tertullian would be established beyond
doubt, and the Octavius would be placed about the
time of the death of Caracalla (217) or even later. But
unfortunately, the identity cannot by any means be
regarded as certain.

Harnack,1 in opposition to Ebert, expresses the
decided opinion that Minucius did not write in the
second century. In other words, the Octavius cannot
have been written before 197, the date of Tertullian's
Apologeticus ; therefore Minucius copied Tertullian.
The following are some of his arguments, (a) Internal
evidence seems to show that the Octavius was written at
a time when Christianity had enjoyed a considerable, not
spasmodic, freedom from religious persecution. This
points to the period between the last persecutions under
Caracalla (died 217) and the first under Decius (250).
(£) The attacks upon the early rulers of Rome, their
policy of aggrandizement based upon robbery and in-
justice, could only have been possible at a time when the
empire was beginning to decay and the emperor had lost
the respect of the people, certainly not during the age of
the Antonines. Even if Minucius were an African, he
was nevertheless a Latin and an advocate at Rome, (c)
It is clear that Christianity had gained firm hold on the
official world, into which it only began to make its way in
the time of Commodus (died 192). (d) The language
is not that of Apuleius and of the school of Fronto and
Gellius of the second century (although other scholars
are equally confident that it is).

Schanz 2 assigns the dialogue to the time of Hadrian
or Antoninus Pius. His view is that it is specially

1 Die Chronologie der altchristlichen Litteratur, ii. (1904).
1 Rheinisches Museum, 1. (1895).

xvi . INTRODUCTION

written to refute the attack of Fronto on the Christians
mentioned in the dialogue and during Fronto's lifetime.

Von Schultze x puts the date as far on as 300-303, but
in that case it would be necessary to declare the Idola of
Cyprian spurious.

Lastly, reference may be made to a statement in
Cruttwell's Literary History of Early Christianity (p. 615) :
"A tradition of doubtful authority, but probable in itself,
speaks of Minucius as a contemporary of Pope Urban of
Rome." Urban was a Roman bishop (222—230) and
the statement, if confirmed, would be a decisive argument
in favour of a later date for the Octavius, but, according
to Harnack, it rests on a misunderstanding.

§4. THE DIALOGUE

The Octavius has been called a " little work of gold "
and "the pearl of apologetics." The first description is
justified, but this can hardly be said of the second. The
reader is at once struck by the absence of reference to
the fundamental doctrines of Christianity or specifically
Christian dogmas. Thus, there is no allusion to the
Logos, the name of Christ is not mentioned, there is no
discussion of the higher mysteries of Christianity, nothing
is said of revelation ; there is a casual reference to the
writings of the prophets and in one or two instances
reminiscences of Biblical passages; the defender of
Christianity uses in support of his arguments quota-
tions, not from the Bible, but from the heathen poets
and philosophers. The religion of Minucius appears
to be limited to the following : (a) the unity of God ; (b)
resurrection of the body ; (c) system of future rewards

1 Jahrbiicker fur protestantische Thcologie, vii. (1881).

INTRODUCTION xvii

and punishments. Various explanations of this striking
phenomenon have been proposed : that the discipline of
the Christian communities forbade the revelation of
esoteric mysteries to the profane ; that Minucius was a
recent convert, and consequently his knowledge of such
matters was limited ; that he was in reality a heretic, not
a whole-hearted believer.

As already mentioned, Schanz suggests that the
Octavius really contains an answer to the attack upon
Christianity by Fronto as represented in the speech of
Caecilius, and that the range of the argument is corre-
spondingly limited. But it is doubful whether Csecilius
can be regarded as reproducing the arguments of Fronto.
Csecilius appears as a semi-sceptic, whereas Fronto was
a devoted adherent of the old religion.

It is more probable that the omission of much that
one would have expected to find included is deliberate,
and that the explanation is to be looked for in the nature
of the audience whom Minucius was addressing. It
will be noted that, at the conclusion of the Octavius,
he himself admits that there are other points which he
has left unconsidered, but which are necessary for a
thorough understanding of the subject. The class of
readers whom Minucius had in view was neither the
emperor, nor the state officials, nor the lower orders, but
the educated literary circle, of which Cascilius is a
representative. This circle, although posing as liberal
and broad-minded in religious matters, was in reality
strongly conservative the moment it came to a question
of introducing new dogmas. To a class like this the
spread of Christianity and the nature of its doctrines
must have been especially disquieting, and there is no
doubt that they were ready to attack it whenever they

xviii INTRODUCTION

had an opportunity. It is to the members of this class,
well-educated men like himself, that Octavius directs his
appeal, and endeavours to build a bridge over which
they may pass to Christianity. This he does by arguing
that there is really no fundamental disagreement between
the principles of Christianity and those of the heathen
philosophers (e.g. in regard to the unity of God), and
that the former were in no way detrimental to the
progress of culture and civilization. His religious attitude
seems to be an attempt to reconcile reason and faith, and
his Christianity is " an ethico-political monotheism, the
kernel of which is practical morality " (religiosior est ilk
qui iustior, xxxii.). This being the author's object in
writing his treatise, it is naturally reflected in its scope
and contents ; he did not consider it necessary to enter
into an exposition of the higher truths of the Christian
religion ; in fact, considering the class whom he wished to
convince, it would probably have defeated his purpose.
Hence the Octavius cannot be considered an " apology "
in the full sense of the word, but only partially ; it is
rather to be viewed in the light of a justification of
Christianity and a plea for a reconsideration of the
verdict against it, drawn up in the form most likely to
appeal to the cultivated audience whom he desired to
influence.

It may be added that one critic x holds that the
Octavius was not written for the general public, but for
the friends of Octavius ; that it was not written with any
definite purpose, apologetic or polemical, but as a
memorial treatise, a kind of belated funeral oration in
honour of a dear friend.

1 A. Elter, Prolegomena zu M.F. (Bonn, 1909).

INTRODUCTION xix

The interlocutors are three : Minucius himself, who
undertakes the role of arbitrator, although in the event
his services are not required ; Caecilius Natalis, at first
the opponent of and subsequently a convert to Chris,
tianity ; and Octavius, the representative of the new
religion. It is impossible to determine whether Csecilius
and Octavius are real or fictitious personages. Accord-
ing to the dialogue, Minucius lived in Rome, Octavius
in an overseas province; both were lawyers, and both
were originally heathens. Octavius took the lead in
embracing Christianity and was followed by Minucius.
Certainly the manner in which Minucius speaks of his
dead friend seems to show that he is speaking of one
whom he had known and loved in real life. Some
critics hold that the dialogue contains the gist, if not
the words, of an actual conversation, and that the
events recorded, including the conversion of Caecilius,
had their foundation in fact. Some, however, take
Octavius to represent the author himself, who would
naturally have been unwilling to assign the chief part in
the dialogue to himself under his own name. The
French scholars who regard Minucius as an African argue
from the occurrence of all three names in African
inscriptions that all the interlocutors were real personages
and Africans ; while others as decidedly proclaim them
fictitious.

There is little doubt, however, as to the origin of the
form in which the treatise is cast. The model is Cicero's
De Natura Deorum, Caecilius taking the part of Cotta
and Velleius, and Octavius that of Balbus. Other
sources drawn upon are Cicero's De Divinatione and
Seneca's De Providentia and De Superstitione, and there
are many reminiscences of Virgil, Horace, Lucretius, and

xx INTRODUCTION

other classical authors. That the Greek apologists were
used is generally considered improbable ; the most likely
is Athenagoras.

As to the language, the supporters of the pre-Tertullian
theory see in it traces of the African school of Latin, as
would be natural if the author were a contemporary of
Fronto, while those who are in favour of a later date
can see nothing of the kind. In any case, it may be
said that the Latinity is on the whole good, although not
altogether free from the influence of ecclesiastical Latin.
The style of the introductory chapters is somewhat
affected as compared with the rest.

§ 5. THE ARGUMENT

In the Ciceronian manner the Octavius opens with
a short introduction, giving an account of the origin of
the dialogue. Minucius, who had lost an intimate friend
of his youth, Octavius Januarius, has a most vivid recol-
lection of a discussion between Octavius, who had
long before embraced Christianity, and another friend,
Csecilius Natalis, who was still a heathen. During an
excursion to Ostia, as they were walking along the beach,
they passed a statue of Serapis, to which Csecilius did
homage in the usual manner. Octavius thereupon
rebukes Minucius for not having shown Caecilius the error
of his ways.

This greatly annoys Csecilius, who at first preserves a
sulky silence, but eventually challenges Octavius to a
discussion of the merits of their respective religions.
Octavius accepts, and the three sit down on a jetty,
Minucius between the other two as arbitrator.

Caecilius opens the attack upon Christianity. Assum-
ing the sceptical attitude that certainty of knowledge is

INTRODUCTION xxi

impossible, he expresses indignant surprise that ignorant,
uneducated persons — such as the Christians — should ven-
ture to make a definite pronouncement upon questions
of which the greatest thinkers had been unable to find
the solution. There is nothing to prove the existence
of a ruling providence, or of a creator of the world,
which may just as well be the result of a fortuitous con-
course of atoms ; indeed, the indiscriminate distribution
of good and evil fortune to saints and sinners alike,
irrespective of their deserts, goes far to disprove the
existence of a just and beneficent ruler of the universe ;
it is more likely that everything is controlled by destiny.
This being so, is it not better to abide by the religion
of our forefathers, which gradually absorbed the cults of
all other nations, by the observance of which Rome had
become the mistress of the world ? The will of the gods
has often been declared to mankind through the medium
of auspices, oracles, and dreams, the neglect of which
always brought calamity. Although the philosophers
may have differed as to the nature of the gods, they all
agreed that they existed. It is deplorable that ignorant
men and credulous women, belonging to the dregs of the
people, should have the audacity to attack a religion so
honourable and long established. And what do they
propose to substitute for it ? Consider their ritual and
practices. They worship an ass's head, the cross, and a
criminal who had expiated his crimes thereon. At the
initiation of their converts they murder infants and drink
their blood, and at their feasts vice of the most abominable
kind is rampant. The very secrecy of these proceedings
is proof that they will not bear the light of day. It is
from the miserable race of the Jews that they have
borrowed the idea of a one and only god, who proved

xxii INTRODUCTION

powerless to protect them against the Romans. In spite
of this, they pretend that he is omnipotent and omnipre-
sent, interfering with every human thought and action,
which to a Roman seems incomprehensible. Even more
foolish is their belief in the destruction of the world by
fire, in the resurrection of the dead, and in a distribution
of rewards and punishments at a final judgement. The
world has always existed, whereas the common lot of
everything that is born is death. How can they imagine
that the former can suffer dissolution and come to an end,
and that they are to rise again after death to immortality ?
Consider again the miserable condition of the Christians
on earth — poverty and hunger with the prospect of death
upon the cross, from which their god cannot save them.
If he cannot help them here, how can he help them in
another world ? If such ignorant people must dabble in
philosophy, let them remember the warning of Socrates :
"That which is above us does not concern us." Such
problems can never be solved, since they transcend the
limits of human understanding. Christianity would
replace the religion of our fathers by old wives' fables
and eventually destroy religion altogether.

Octavius in his counter-attack first points out the con-
tradiction between the sceptical standpoint of Csecilius
and his avowed reverence for the traditional religion.
The humble condition of the Christians does not prove
that they are incapable of discussing higher things. All
human beings without distinction are endowed with the
faculty of reason and have an equal capacity for dis-
covering the truth. Any one who carefully examines the
order of the universe, must come to the conclusion that
the world has been created and is controlled by a higher
authority, the only doubtful point being whether this

INTRODUCTION xxiii

authority is one or many. As to this, experience has
shown that a monarchical form of government is best
adapted to promote the interests and happiness of man-
kind ; all the more is this the case with the complex of
kingdoms which go to make up the universe. The unity
of God, His eternity and omnipotence, have been recog-
nized by philosophers l and poets, although their writings
contain much that is absurd and inconsistent.

Next, Octavius compares the God of the Christians
with the gods of the Romans. The latter were really
only deified men, who were born, had children, and died,
like the rest of mankind. The ridiculous ideas current
regarding them had their origin in the works of the poets,
especially Homer. The images which were objects of
worship were mere blocks of wood and stone ; idolatry
in practice was both ridiculous and abominable. The
assertion that Rome owed her greatness to her gods, and
that the empire was built up by a due observance of
religion, is false. On the contrary, her gods were dis-
placed by foreign ones adopted from conquered nations,
and the growth of her power is one long tale of robbery
and violation of justice and religion. The auspices and
auguries may sometimes have hit the truth, but in most
cases have proved a delusion and a snare. How then is
the great and lasting influence of idolatry to be accounted
for ? It is due to the agency of the lost spirits called
"demons." Ruined themselves, they strive to ruin
others, deceiving the credulous by fictitious oracles and
pretended miraculous cures. Finally, it is they who have
prompted the monstrous charges against Christianity,
which could only have been brought by those who were

1 The account of the opinions of different philosophers is borrowed
wholesale from Cicero.

xxiv INTRODUCTION

themselves guilty of the crimes of which they accused
others.

The holy life of the Christians is then described in
glowing terms and confidence expressed in the justice
and goodness of God, whose protection had only been
forfeited by the Jews as a punishment for their stiff-
neckedness and evil ways. As for the ideas which par-
ticularly excited the derision of Caecilius — the destruction
of the world by fire, the resurrection of the body, and
future rewards and punishments — they involve no contra-
diction of the laws of nature, and are indeed supported
by the philosophers, who learnt and reproduced them,
though dimly and imperfectly, from the prophets. No
doubt the heathen and evil-doers, conscious of the
punishment awaiting them, are only too ready to dis-
believe in a future existence. The apparently miserable
lot of the Christians on earth is no proof of the neglect
or inability of God to give them a share of the good
things of this world. They regard earthly trials and
misfortunes as a school of virtue and an incitement to
heroic deeds under the eyes of their captain, God. The
courage under suffering, so extolled in many of the
ancient Romans, is equalled, if not surpassed, by that
of the Christians — men, women, and even children.
The earthly prosperity of the heathen soon passes away,
but the Christians look forward to an imperishable
crown and eternal happiness. They certainly refuse to
take part in shows and amusements which they regard
as objectionable and injurious to morality, but they are
not averse from innocent and rational recreation.

Octavius then utters a warning against being misled
by the scepticism of the philosophers, who in their
attacks on the faults of others are really condemning

INTRODUCTION xxv

themselves. In conclusion, he proudly claims that the
Christians have been successful in the search after truth,
in which the philosophers had failed, and expresses the
hope that heathen superstition may be rooted out and
true religion preserved.

As the result of the discussion, Csecilius declares
himself defeated, but at the same time claims that his
defeat is a victory — a victory over his former errors.
Minucius rejoices at being thereby relieved of the
thankless task of pronouncing his verdict as arbitrator.
" After this we retired, all three joyful and happy :
Caecilius, because he believed ; Octavius, because he
was victorious; I myself, because of the conversion of
the one and the victory of the other."

THE "OCTAVIUS" OF
MINUCIUS FELIX

I. WHEN I look back and examine my recollections of
Octavius, the dear and intimate friend of my youth, the
charm of his character and personal affection l are so
firmly rooted in my mind, that I seem, as it were, to be
actually living again in the past, not merely recalling to
mind what is finished and done with. The further he is
removed from my earthly gaze, the more deeply is his
image imprinted on my heart, nay, on my inmost feelings.
And not without reason has the loss of so excellent a
Christian 2 left behind such infinite regret ; for his
affection for me was so passionate that, whether we were
jesting or discussing serious matters, our wills were
always in perfect harmony, our likes and dislikes identical.
You would have thought we had only one soul between
us; he was the sole confidant of my youthful follies,3
the sole partner of my errors. And when the gloom was

1 Hominis may be objective or subjective : " my affection for O."
or "his affection for me."

* Sanctus, like a-yios, is used to denote a Christian as opposed
to a pagan.

* Solus in amoribus. Amores is usually taken to mean "love
intrigues " (youthful follies). Others render, " he was my only
bosom-friend.'

28 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

dispersed, and I emerged from the depths of mental
darkness into the light of truth and wisdom,1 he did not
reject my companionship, but, what was even more noble,
took the lead. And so, when my thoughts return to all
the days passed together in closest intimacy, my mind
dwells with special interest upon that discourse of his,
in which, by the force of his arguments, Caecilius, who
still clung to superstitious vanities, was converted to the
true faith.

II. Octavius had come to Rome on business and also
to see me ; he had left home, wife, and children : the
latter still in the age of innocence, when their broken
utterances are so charming — the childish prattle, to
which the halting accents of their faltering tongue lend
additional sweetness. Words cannot express how eagerly
and with what transports of joy I welcomed his arrival,
a joy increased by the suddenness of this visit of my
bosom friend.

After two days' uninterrupted enjoyment of his com-
pany, when the eager longings of our hearts were satisfied,
and we had told each other of matters of mutual interest,
unknown to us in consequence of our separation, we
decided to pay a visit to Ostia.2 This is a delightful
town, where I hoped to find in sea-bathing an agreeable
and beneficial treatment for certain humours from which
I suffered. Owing to the vacation, legal work was slack
and had made way for the vintage; and just then, after

* Like <pi\o<ro(pia, sapientia is often used as a synonym for
Christianity as true philosophy.

5 Ostia, fifteen miles from Rome, was supposed to have been
founded by Ancus Marcius, one of the legendary kings. During
the early empire it was a nourishing town with an excellent harbour
and a favourite summer resort and bathing-place, but rapidly
declined after the Gothic invasion. It is now a wretched village of
some 1000 inhabitants.

MINUCIUS FELIX 29

the heat of summer, the weather had turned cooler with
the coming of autumn.

One morning at dawn we happened to be walking
along the bank of the Tiber towards the sea ; the gentle
breeze invigorated our limbs and the walk over the sand,
as it yielded beneath our soft tread, was especially de-
lightful. Caecilius noticed an image of Serapis x and,
after the custom of the superstitious vulgar, put his hand
to his mouth and kissed it.2

III. Thereupon Octavius said : " Brother Marcus, it is
unworthy of an honest man to leave one who in and out
of the house is your constant companion, in such blind
and vulgar ignorance. On a fine day like this, how can
you allow him to do homage to stones, even though they
are fashioned in the likeness of the gods, anointed with
oil,3 and crowned with garlands ? You must be aware
that the shame of his error will recoil as much upon you
as upon him."

While Octavius was speaking, we were half-way between
Ostia and the sea, and were already nearing the open

1 Serapis (Sarapis), a god of Babylonian origin, introduced into
Egypt during the Roman period, in later times regarded as the
ruler of the underworld and departed souls. His real name was
Osor-hapi (= Osiris- Apis), that is, the dead Apis become Osiris.
This Osiris-Apis was identified with a god brought from Sinope on
the Euxine by Ptolemy I (323-284 B.C.), in consequence of a
warning in a dream (Tacitus, Histories, iv. 83), to be the patron of
the royal house. From Egypt the cult of Serapis spread over the
whole empire. He was especially regarded as a god of healing like
yEsculapius, and has much in common with Pluto and Jupiter.

* Kissing the hand was a sign of adoration and hoir.age, probably
of Oriental origin : cp. Job xxxi. 27, " My mouth hath kissed my
hand." Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxviii. 25: "In adoration we put our
right hand to our mouth and kiss it."

* Gen. xxviii. 18, "Jacob took the stone and set it up ... and
poured oil on the top of it." Such stones were objects of idolatrous
worship amongst Jews and heathens; cp. Arnobius, Adv. Gent.
i-39-

30 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

beach, where the gentle waves, which laved the furthest
stretch of sands, extended and as it were laid it out for a
promenade. The sea is always restless, even when the
winds are still, and although it did not reach the shore
in white, foaming waves, we were highly delighted to see
it curling and winding round l and about our feet, when
we dipped them at the water's edge. Alternately it
dashed against our feet and sported with the waves, and
then, as it retired and retraced its course, sucked them
back into itself.

In this manner we walked on slowly and quietly along
the shore of the gently winding beach, beguiling the way
with conversation, which turned upon Octavius's account
of his voyage. After we had gone on for a considerable
distance during the course of our conversation, we turned
back and went over the same ground again. When we
reached a spot where some small vessels, hauled up on
land, had been placed on oak supports, high and dry
above the mud, we saw some boys thoroughly enjoying
themselves in a game of "ducks and drakes." This
game is played as follows. A shell, rounded and polished
by the constant movements of the waves, is picked up
from the beach, and firmly grasped between the fingers
on the flat side. The player then stoops and, bending
down, throws it as far as he can along the top of the
water. The missile either skims the surface, or cutting
through the crest of the waves darts along, springing in
the air. The boy whose shell goes furthest and oftenest
jumps out of the water, claims the victory.

IV. While we were all enjoying the sight, Csecilius
alone was indifferent, and did not even smile at the

1 Tortuosis: v. 1. forests, "swelling" (//'/. muscular).

MINUCIUS FELIX 31

eagerness of the contest. Silent, anxious, holding aloof,
he showed clearly by the expression of his face the signs
of some secret grief. " What does this mean ? " I said
to him ; " what has become of your usual vivacity ? I
miss the cheerfulness natural to you even on serious
occasions." He replied : " I have for some time felt
keenly distressed and hurt by the manner in which
Octavius attacked and reproached you with carelessness,
in order to support his charges of ignorance against me
more strongly, though indirectly. So I will go further ;
the whole matter shall be thrashed out between Octavius
and myself. If he wishes me to argue with him, as a
member of the sect which he attacks, he will see at once
that it is easier to argue as among friends than to engage
in a scientific discussion. Let us sit down on that rocky
mole projecting into the sea, which has been made to
protect the baths ; we shall be able to rest after our walk
and discuss matters more earnestly." We sat down as
he proposed, myself between my two friends, with one
of them on each side of me. This was not a mark of
respect, rank, or honour, for friends are always equal or
become so ; the object of the arrangement was that I, as
arbitrator, should be next to both, in order to hear them
better and to keep the disputants apart.

V. Then Caecilius began as follows : " My dear
Marcus, you cannot be in doubt as to the matter which
we are now to investigate, since, having carefully tested
both systems, you have abandoned the one and chosen
the other. Nevertheless, for the present occasion your
mind should be so trained that you can hold the balance
evenly as an upright judge, without inclining to one side
more than the other. Otherwise, your verdict will appear
to be the expression of your own feelings rather than the

32 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

result of our arguments. If, then, you will take your seat
as an entire stranger who knows nothing of either party,
it will be easy for me to show that everything in human
affairs is doubtful, uncertain, undecided, and probable
rather than true.1 For this reason it is the more sur-
prising that some, weary of a thorough search after truth,
should blindly give in to any opinion whatever, rather
than steadfastly, and diligently persevere in their investiga-
tions. Surely all must feel grieved and indignant at the
thought that certain people — people, too, ignorant of
learning, unlettered, and unacquainted even with the
meanest arts — should pronounce definitely upon the
universe and the supreme power, which, after all these
ages, still forms the subject of the deliberations of the
philosophers and their numerous schools. And this is
only natural, since human insignificance is quite incap-
able of investigating things divine. It is not given us to
know, and we are forbidden to examine2 what is suspended
above our heads in the heavens or buried deep down in
the earth. We should rightly consider ourselves tolerably
happy and wise, if we had a more intimate knowledge of
ourselves in accordance with the maxim of the wise man
of old.3 But inasmuch as, abandoning ourselves to idle
and senseless efforts, we overstep the limits of our in-
significance and, though thrown upon earth, in our bold
ambition transcend heaven and the stars themselves, at
least let us not complicate our mistake by idle and
terrifying fancies. Granted that, in the beginning, the
germs of everything were condensed by the self-fructifying

1 The Sceptics held that real knowledge or perception of things
was impossible; the utmost that could be attained was "prob-
ability " in varying degrees.

2 The text is corrupt here.

3 " Know thyself," the maxim of Socrates.

MINUCIUS FELIX 33

action of nature, what God is the author of this ? Granted
that the members of the body of the universe have been
united, arranged, and formed by a fortuitous concourse
of atoms,1 what God is the architect? Let us admit that
the stars have been lighted by fire, that the sky has been
suspended aloft by the nature of its material, that the earth
has been similarly secured by its own weight,2 and that
the sea was formed 3 from moisture, how does this explain
this new religion, this dread, which is nothing but super-
stition? Man and every living creature which is born,
lives, and grows, is formed by a haphazard union of
elements, into which they are again separated, dissolved,
and dispersed ; and in like manner all things in the uni-
verse flow back to their source and return to themselves.
There is no artificer, no judge, no creator of the world.
Thus, when the elements of fire have united, new and
ever new suns are always shining; when the vapours of
earth have been given off, the mists are continually in-
creasing. When these mists are compressed and gathered
together, the clouds rise higher; when they fall, the rain
pours down, the winds blow, the hail rattles ; if the thunder-
clouds collide, the thunder roars, the lightning glows, the
thunderbolts flash and fall at random, hurl themselves
upon the mountains, attack the trees, strike without
distinction places sacred and profane, smite the guilty
and oftentimes the pious.4 What need to speak of the
shifting and uncertain storms, by which all things are
violently whirled along, promiscuously and in disorder?
In shipwrecks, are not the destinies of good and bad

1 The doctrine of Epicurus.

* In the original, sua materia must be supplied before fundaverit.
8 Reading confluxerit for influxerit.

* Lucretius (vi. 417) similarly attempts to refute the idea of a
divine providence ; so also Aristophanes, Clouds, 399.

C

34 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

mixed up, with no distinction of their merits and defects ?
In fires, does not death come upon innocent and guilty
alike ? When an expanse of the sky is tainted by plague
and pestilence, do not all perish indiscriminately ? In the
heat and fury of battle, is it not the best and bravest that
fall ? Even in peaceful times, not only is vice put on a
level with virtue, but is even respected, so that often one
does not know whether to detest a man's depravity or to
envy his good fortune. But if the world were ruled by
a divine providence and by the authority of some divinity,1
Phalaris - and Dionysius 3 would never have deserved a
throne, Rutilius4 and Camillus6 banishment, Socrates6
the draught of hemlock. Look how the fruit-trees, the
corn white for harvest, and the ripe grapes are spoilt by
the rain and beaten down by the hail. So either the
truth, being uncertain, is hidden from us and concealed,

1 For his argument the speaker here borrows from Cicero, Nat.
Dear. (iii. 32, 79,), who sums it up in a quotation from Ennius : " If
they [the gods] cared for them [men,] it would be well with the good,
and ill with the bad, which is not the case."

2 I halaris, tyrant of A^rigentum in Sicily ( 570-554 B.C.) He
is said to have had a brazen bull constructed, in which criminals were
roasted alive.

3 Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse (about 432-367 B.C.).
In spite of his cruel and suspicious character, he was a capable ruler
and a patron of literature and art.

4 Publius Rutilius Rufus, Roman statesman and follower of the
Stoics. By his conscientious admi listration of the province of Asia
having incurred the hatred of the publicani (the equestrian tax-
gatht-rers) he was accused of extortion, condemned (92 B.C.) and
banished.

* Marcus Furius Camillus (446-365 B.C.), one of the legendary
heroes of early Rome. He took the city of Veii after a ten years'
sirge, but being accused of appropriating some of the booty, went
into voluntary exile.

8 Socrates -(470-399 B.C.), the celebrated philosopher. lie was
accused of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens and con-
demned to death by hemlock. The basis of his philosophy was
self-knowledge (" Know thyself"). His demon, or familiar spirit,
by which he claimed to be inspired, is supposed to represent the
warnings of conscience.

MINUCIUS FELIX 35

or more probably fortune, not restrained by any laws,
exercises its power in various dangerous emergencies.

VI. " Since, then, either fortune is blind,1 or nature is
uncertain, how much more respectful, how much better, is
it to receive the teaching of our ancestors as the high
priest 2 of truth, to reverence the traditional religion, to
worship the gods whom your parents taught you to fear
before you knew them intimately, and not to pronounce
judgement upon the divinities, but to believe our fore-
fathers who, in a still uncivilized age, when the world was
only just born, were thought worthy of having the gods
as their servants 3 or rulers ! Thus it is that in every
empire, province, and city each nationality observes the
ritual of its own family and worships its local divinities.
Thus the Eleusinians revere Ceres, the Phrygians the
Great Mother, the Epidaurians ^Esculapius, the Chaldaeans
Belus, the Syrians Astarte, the Taurians Diana, the Gauls
Mercury, the Romans all the gods.4 This is why the

1 Caca: The MS. reading is certa ("either fortune is sure") ;
but the epithet is inapplicable and does not agree with "not restrained
by any laws."

' The word antistes means specially "the overseer of a temple,"
in Christian writers "a bishop." Here the term "high-priest" is
used in a general sense for one who is a master of any science or art
(f-g- a high-priest of science).

* Famulos : the MS. reading is faciles ("favourably disposed ").

* Eleusis, in Atlica, on the coast, about twelve miles from Athens,
where the Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated in honour of Demeter
(Ceres), the goddess of agriculture. The Great Mother is Cybele
(Rhea), the mother of all the gods, the great nature-goddess wor-
shipped in Phrygia in Asia Minor. At Epidaun;S, in Argolis in
Peloponnesus, there was a temple of Asklepios (^Esculapius), the god
of healing, to which the sick resorted for the purpose of obtaining a
cure. Belus (Baal, Bel) was the national divinity of various Oriental
nations — Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Babylonians. Astarte, a Syro-
Phoenician goddess, the Oriental counterpart of Aphrodite (Venus).
At Tauri (the Crimea) human sacrifice was offered to the local
goddess, whom the Greeks identified with Artemis (Diana). There
were several Gallo- Roman equivalents of Hermes (Mercurius), with

36 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

power and authority of the Romans has embraced the
entire world, extended its empire beyond east and west and
the borders of ocean itself; in the field they exhibited
valour combined with respect for the gods ; they fortified
their city with religious rites, with chaste maidens, with
many priestly offices and titles ; when besieged x and with
nothing between them and captivity but the Capitol,2
they still worshipped the gods whom others would have
renounced as hostile, and unarmed, save with the weapons
of religious faith, broke through the ranks of the Gauls,
who were astounded at the audacity inspired by their
reverence for the gods. Having stormed the enemy's
ramparts, even in the first frenzy of victory they respected
the divinities of the conquered, seeking everywhere for
strange gods and adopting them as their own, and even
setting up altars to unknown powers and the shades of the
dead. Thus, by adopting the rites of all nations, they
became entitled to rule over them. Hence the feeling of
reverence for the gods continued uninterrupted and uni-
form, not diminishing but increasing as time went on ; for
the ancients were accustomed to attribute sanctity to
religious ceremonies and temples in proportion to the
antiquity attributed to them.

VII. " In the meantime I will venture to grant the
point,3 and, if I am wrong, I prefer to err in good com-
pany.4 It was not without good reason that our ances-

different surnames, whose attributes in general resemble those of the
Greco-Roman divinity as a god of commerce.

1 By the Gauls (390 B.C.).

1 Roman temple and fortress on the Capitoline mount (see Livy, v.
46).

1 That there are gods.

4 Or, " my mistake is not so bad as yours : it is safer and prefer-
able, because it is to this that Rome owes her greatness."

MINUCIUS FELIX 37

tors so zealously observed the auguries, consulted the
entrails of victims, instituted sacrifices, and dedicated
temples. Look at the records of our chronicles : you
will find that our forefathers admitted the rites of all
religions, either by way of thanks for divine favours, or
to avert the threatened wrath of the gods, or to appease
their actual rage and fury. Witness the Idaean mother l
who on her arrival in Italy both cleared the reputation
of a Roman matron and delivered the city from the fear
of the enemy. Witness the consecrated statues by the
lake, representing the twin brethren on horseback just as
they appeared when, mounted on their foaming and
reeking steeds, in hot haste they brought the news of the
victory over Perseus on the same day on which they had
gained it. 2 Witness the renewal of the games in honour
of offended Jupiter, the result of a plebeian's dream.8
Witness the self-devotion of the Decii,4 justified by the

1 During the second Punic war (204 B.c) it was declared by an
oracle that the only way to rid the soil of the foreign invader was to
transfer the statue of Cybele from Pessinus in Asia Minor to Rome.
The vessel, on board of which the statue had been placed, grounded
at the mouth of the Tiber, and according to the soothsayers could
only be moved by a perfectly chaste woman. A certain matron,
Claudia Quinta, who had been accused of immorality, offered her
services. As soon as she pulled the rope, the vessel followed her.
She thus saved the state and her own reputation.

" Perseus, the last King of Macedonia, was decisively defeated by
the Romans at Pydna in Macedonia (168 B.C.). The news of the
victory was brought to Rome a» soon as it had been won by two
horsemen identified with Castor and Pollux. These two heroes
were seen on other occasions in similar circumstances, notably at
the battle of Lake Regillus. The lake is Juturna, in the Forum near
the Temple of Castor.

3 Jupiter, displeased at an incident thnt occurred during the Circus
games appeared in a dream to a plebeian named Titus Latinius,
ordering him to inform the consuls that the games must be repeated.
Latinius neglected to do so, and was punished by the loss of his son
and a severe illness. He then carried out the god's order and was
immediately restored to health.

4 The Decii (Publius Decius Mus, father and son) devoted them-

38 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

event. Witness also Curtius,1 who filled up the deep and
yawning gulf with the bulk of himself and his horse,
while the people assisted by throwing in gifts of grain
and valuables in his honour.2 More often, indeed, than
we wished, neglect of the auspices has borne witness to
the presence of the gods. Thus Allia 3 is a name of ill
omen ; thus the attack of Claudius and Junius * on the
Carthaginians was no battle, but a disastrous shipwreck ;
Flaminius despised the auguries, with the result that Lake
Trasimenus 5 was swollen and dyed with Roman blood ;
Crassus6 mocked at and justly incurred the curses of
the Furies7 with the result that we had to reconquer
our standards from the Parthians. I omit numerous

selves to death, the father in the war against the Latins (340 B.C.),
the son at the battle of Sentinum in Umbtia during the third Samnite
war (295 B.C.).

1 When a great chasm appeared in the Forum (362 B.c), the
soothsayers declared it would never fill up until Rome's most
precious possession was thrown into it. Thereupon Marcus Curtius,
declaring that nothing was more precious than arms and valour,
mounted on his horse and, fully armed, leaped into the gulf, which
immediately closed. On the spot a lake was formed, which was
called Lacus Curtius.

* According to Livy, vii 6, 5.

3 A small branch of the Tiber, where the Romans were defeated
by the Gauls (390 B.C.). The disaster was attributed to Sulpicius,
the Roman commander, who sacrificed on the day after the ides of
the month, which was considered unlucky.

4 Publius Claudius Pulcher and Lucius Junius Pullus were consuls
during the first Punic war in 249 B.C. The foimer was completely
defeated in an attack on the Carthaginians in the harbour of Drepana,
the latter at Pachynum, both in Sicily. In both cases defeat was
attributed to the neglect of religious observances.

6 A lake in Etruria, where the Romans were defeated by the
Carthaginians under Hannibal (217 B.C.).

6 Marcus Licinius Crassus, the triumvir, was defeated by the Par-
thians at Carrhse in Mesopotamia (53 B.C.). There is supposed to
be a reference to the Parthian campaigns of Verus (161-163). The
standards, however, had been recovered in the time of Augustus.

7 Or (reading dirarum, not Diranim] "the announcement of
sinister portents" (cp. Cicero, De Div. i. 16, 35).

MINUCIUS FELIX 39

instances in ancient history; I say nothing about the songs
of the poets on the birth, gifts, and favours of the gods ;
I also pass over oracular predictions of the destinies of
the world, lest the history of antiquity should seem to
you too full of legend. Look at the temples and shrines
of the gods, the protection and ornament of the Roman
state ; they are rather worthy of honour by reason of
their divine inhabitants, ever present indwellers, than rich
in worship, decorations, and votive gifts.1 Hence it is
that our seers, full of and as it were mingled with the
god, anticipate the future, give warning of dangers, heal
the sick, encourage the afflicted, help the unfortunate,
console the suffering, assist the toilers. Even when at
rest we see, hear, and recognize those gods whom in the
daytime we impiously deny, refuse to acknowledge and
forswear.

VIII. "Accordingly, since all peoples are firmly con-
vinced that there are immortal gods, although their nature
and origin are undecided, I cannot think there is any one
so audacious and so swollen with impious pretensions to
wisdom as to endeavour to destroy or weaken so ancient,
useful, and salutary a religion. Certainly Theodorus of
Gyrene* and previous to him Diagoras of Melos,2 called
Atheos by the ancients, both asserted that there were no
gods, a statement which, if believed, would have utterly
destroyed the feeling of awe and veneration by which
human actions are governed ; but they will never secure
much influence for their impious doctrines under the name
and authority of their sham philosophy. Protagoras of

1 The images were regarded, not as gods, but as the dwelling-
places or sanctuaries of the gods. Acts xvii. 24: "God dwelleth
not in temples made with hands."

1 Well-known atheists.

40 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

Abdera,1 who discussed the question of the godhead rather
as a philosopher than as an atheist, was banished by the
Athenians and his writings publicly burnt. Is it not
then deplorable that an attack should be made upon the
gods by certain fellows — you must excuse my expressing
with some freedom how strongly I feel in regard to the
cause I have taken up — certain fellows, I repeat, belong-
ing to a party whose case is hopeless, proscribed, and des-
perate?2 Having gathered together from the lowest
dregs of the people a number of ignorant men and
credulous women always ready to believe anything, they
have formed a rabble of impious conspirators ; at their
nocturnal gatherings, solemn fasts, 3 and barbarous meals
the bond of union is not any sacred rite but crime.4 It is a
people 5 that lurks in darkness and shuns the light, silent
in public, talkative in corners ; they despise our temples
as tombs,6 insult our gods, ridicule our ceremonies, and,
in need of pity themselves, profess (if allowed) to pity
our priests ; half-naked themselves, they contemptuously
refuse offices and dignities.7 Marvellous folly and in-
credible audacity ! They despise the torments that are
before their eyes, but they fear those that are uncertain
and in the future ; they are afraid of dying after death,

1 One of the most famous of the Greek sophists (professors of
wisdom), an older contemporary of Socrates.

2 The epithet is applied to the Christians, as endowed with the
courage of despair and ready to sacrifice even their lives for their
faith (cp. Tertullian, Apol. 50).

1 The watches of the soldiers of Christ, usually held on Wednes-
day and Friday.

* The younger Pliny, who tells us a good deal about the Chris-
tians during the rei^n of Trajan, flatly contradicts this.

* Or, "sect."

* For the reason of this see Lactantius, De Sped. xiii. The body
of the Christian church was not used as a place of burial till long
after Constantine.

7 Purpuras, the purple garments worn by kings and magistrates.

MINUCIUS FELIX 41

but have no fear of death itself. Thus treacherous hope
quiets their alarm by the comforting assurance of a life
hereafter.

IX. " 111 weeds grow apace, and these vicious habits
are spreading day by day, and these abominable secret
haunts where these impious wretches hold their meetings
are increasing in number all over the world.1 These
execrable conspirators must be utterly rooted out. They
recognize one another by secret signs and marks ; they
love one another after the briefest acquaintance ; a kind
of religion of sensuality prevails amongst them ; they
call themselves promiscuously brothers and sisters, and
under the cloak of these names are guilty of the most
horrible offences. Thus their vain and foolish super-
stition glories in its crimes. Were these charges untrue,
rumour, which is ever shrewd, would never spread such
scandalous reports about them, such as I should be
ashamed to mention. I am told that, under the influ-
ence of some foolish belief, they worship as sacred the
head of the lowest of animals — the ass.* A religion
worthy of the morality from which it sprang ! . . . .
Again, to say that a man who had suffered capital
punishment for a crime and the death-dealing wood of

1 Religious societies were always regarded with suspicion, as
possibly formed with political motives or the design of attacking
the government. The spread of Christianity is appealed to by
Arnobins as a strong argument in its favour.

2 No satisfactory account of the origin of this ridiculous story
has been given. According to Tertullian {Apol. 16), an enemy of
Christianity exhibited in Carthage a picture representing a god with
ass's ear5:, holding a book with the inscription " Onokoietes [the
meaning of which is doubtful], the God of the Christians." In 1856
a rude sketch travestying the Crucifixion, was found on the Palatine
Hill. A man's body with an ass's head and outstretched arms is
fastened to a cross. A smaller figure uplifts his hand in token of
worship ; underneath is the inscription : " Alexamenos worships his
God." The tale was first told of the Jews, who were called Asinarii.

42 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

the cross are objects of their veneration, is to assign
fitting altars to abandoned wretches, and to assert that
they worship what they deserve to worship. The details
of the initiation of novices are as horrible as they are
well known.1 An infant, covered with dough to deceive
the unwary, is brought to the would-be novice, who,
misled by the coating of dough and encouraged to deal
what are apparently harmless blows, secretly stabs it
to death. Then — shame on them ! — they thirstily lick
up the child's blood and eagerly divide his limbs ; this
victim is their bond of union, complicity in the crime
is their pledge of mutual silence. Such rites are more
abominable than any acts of sacrilege. What takes
place at their banquets 2 is also well known ; it is every-
where talked about, as is attested by a speech of our
countryman of Cirta.3 On a fixed day they assemble
together, children, sisters, mothers, people of both sexes
and of all ages. After much feasting, a dog, fastened
to the lamp, is encouraged by some pieces of meat
thrown to it to spring violently beyond the length of its
chain. The lamp, which would have been an incon-
venient witness, is overturned and extinguished ; after
this riot and indecency reign supreme.

X. " I purposely omit much ; what I have already said
is too much, and all or most of it is shown to be true

1 The charge is vigorously refuted by Tertullian, Apol. 7-8.

1 An account of the objects of the Christian agapai is ^iven by
Tertullian, Apol. 39. Pliny himself testifies to the harmlessness of
their meetings and proceedings.

3 Marcus Cornelius Fronto, of Cirta in Numidia, rhetorician and
jurist (2nd century A.D.). He was a great favourite of Hadrian and
held the highest offices of state. It was not until 1815 that any
considerable portion of his writings was discovered, chiefly consist-
ing of correspondence with members of the imperial family. The
speech referred to (Adversus Christianas') is lost. The epithet
noster might also mean "belonging to our party," i.e. a heathen.

MINUCIUS FELIX 43

by the very atmosphere of secrecy which surrounds this
impious religion. Why do they make such efforts to
hide and conceal whatever it is that they worship?
honourable acts always welcome publicity, only crimes
delight in secrecy. Why have they no altars, no temples,
no well-known images?1 Why do they never speak in
public,2 never meet freely, unless it be that the hidden
object of their worship is either criminal or disgraceful ?
But whence, who, or where is that one god, solitary,
forsaken, whom no free people or kingdom, nor even
Roman superstition has acknowledged ? Only the miser-
able race of the Jews also worships one god, but at least
openly, with temples, altars, victims and ceremonies.
Yet their god is so weak and powerless that he and
his people are prisoners of the Romans.3 And what
monstrous absurdities the Christians invent ! According
to them, that god of theirs, whom they can neither see
nor show to others, carefully investigates all men's
characters,4 acts, even their words and secret thoughts,
since he is present everywhere and always on the move.
According to them, he is a nuisance, restless, shamelessly
curious, being present at man's every act and wandering
from place to place. But if he is occupied with the
whole he cannot attend to details, and if he is
engaged with details he cannot do his duty to the
whole.

XI. " Further, Christians threaten the whole world and
the universe, together with the hosts of heaven, with
destruction by fire, and profess to believe in its future

1 This charge is dealt with at length in Arnobius, Adv. Nat. 6, I.

2 Lactantius, Div. Inst. vii. 26.

3 Romanis hominibus. The MS. has nominibus, for which
Halm reads numinibus ("deities").

4 Cicero, Nat. Dear. i. 20. 54.

44 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

ruin.1 As if the eternal order of things, established by
the divine laws of nature, could be disturbed, the bond
of all the elements broken, the framework of heaven
taken to pieces, and that mass, by which it is enclosed
and surrounded, undermined ! Not content with this
insane idea, they improve on it by adding certain old
wives' fables. They assert that they are born again
after death when they are nothing but dust and ashes,
and, strangely confiding, believe each other's lies; you
would think that they had already come to life again.
A twofold evil and a double folly ! While threatening
the heavens and the stars with destruction, whereas we
leave them as we found them, they promise themselves,
on the other hand, eternal life when dead and extinct,
the inevitable sequel of birth ! Hence it is easy to
understand why they curse our funeral pyres and con-
demn cremation ; just as if every body, although with-
drawn from the flames, were not reduced to dust as the
years and ages roll on, just as if it makes any difference
whether our bodies are torn to pieces by wild beasts,
swallowed up in the sea, covered with earth, or destroyed
by fire. Any kind of burial must be a punishment to
them, if they have any feeling after death ; if they have
not, cremation must be regarded as a beneficent remedy
in the rapidity of its effect. Self-deceived, they promise
themselves, as the elect, the blessings of eternal life after
death ; the rest of the world, as evil-doers, are doomed
to eternal punishment. I could say much more on this,
but I am in a hurry to conclude my speech. I need
not labour the point that it is they themselves who are
the evil-doers, I have already proved it ; although, even

1 Not only Christians but many heathen thinkers held the same
belief (e.g. the Stoics).

MINUCIUS FELIX 45

if I were to admit that they are good and honest men,
I know that most people are of opinion— and in this
you agree — that guilt or innocence is the work of fate.
While some consider fate responsible for all our actions,
you attribute them to God; so that the members of
your sect do not favour it of their own accord, but as
the elect of God.1 Thus you imagine an unjust judge
who, while punishing men for an action which is due
to fate, spares those who follow their own will.

"However, I should like to ask whether we are to rise
again with or without bodies ? 2 If the former, with what
bodies, — with the old or new ones? Without bodies?
but this, so far as I can judge, would mean no life, no
mind, no soul.3 With the old bodies ? but these would
have been dissolved long ago. With new ones ? — then
it is a case of the birth of a new man, not of the reno-
vation of the old. And yet, although so much time has
elapsed and countless ages have passed, is there a single
trustworthy instance of a man having returned from the
dead like Protesilaus,4 if only for a few hours ? All these
figments of a disordered brain, these senseless consolations
invented by lying poets to lend a charm to their verse, to
your shame you have hashed up in your excessive credu-
lity in honour of your god.

XII. " Not even does the experience of the present
convince you how deceptive are these empty hopes and

1 Romans viii. 16.

2 I Corinthians xv. 35 : "But some man will say, How are the
dead raised up ? and with what body do they come_?"

3 Cicero, Nat. Dt-or. \. 12, 30.

4 A Thessalian hero, the first of the Greeks to set foot on Trojan
soil in the Trojan war. He was slain, as an oracle had predicted.
His wife, Laodamia, obtained permission for him to return to earth
for a few hours. He then died again and Laodamia almost immedi-
ately followed him.

46 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

useless promises. Miserable wretches, you can guess,
from what happens to you during life, what awaits you in
death. Look : some of you — the greater, the better
part, as you assert — suffer from want, cold, toil, and
hunger; and your god permits it, or pretends not to
see it ; he either will not or cannot help his people ;
hence he is either powerless or unjust.1 You, who dream
of immortality after death, when unnerved by severe
illness,2 consumed by fever, racked by pain, can you not
yet understand your condition ? Do you not yet recog-
nize your frailty ? Against your will, miserable wretch,
you are convicted of weakness but will not admit it.

" But to pass over things common to all, consider again
what awaits you — threats, punishment, torture, crosses
no longer objects of worship but instruments of suffering,
fires which you both anticipate and dread. Where is
that god of yours, who is able to help those who come
to life again, but not the living ? Do not the Romans,
without the help of your god, rule, govern, and possess
the whole world, and hold sway over yourselves ? But
you, in the meantime, in your suspense and anxiety
abstain from legitimate amusements ; you never visit the
shows,3 never join the processions, never attend the
public banquets,4 You express abhorrence of the
sacred games, of meat already offered in sacrifice, of
libations poured upon the altars. Thus you show your

1 A frequent heathen argument.

1 Periculo might also be rendered simply "peril." Some editors
read querquero : " when shaken by ague."

3 Tertullian, De Sped. 24 : One of the chief proofs that a man is
a Christian is his repudiation of the shows ; Apol. 38. The fact
that Tertullian's essay On the Shows was purposely written to
dissuade Christians from attending them, indicates that some of
them did so.

4 In honour of the emperor, or to celebrate some great military
success.

MINUCIUS FELIX 47

fear of the very gods whom you deny ! You never
crown your heads with garlands, nor grace your bodies
with perfumes ; you reserve unguents for funerals, you
even refuse to lay wreaths on the grave,1 pale and trem-
bling wretches, who deserve to be pitied — but by our
gods. Therefore, if you have any sense, any feeling of
shame, give up prying into the quarters of the sky, the
destinies and secrets of the universe ; for ignorant, un-
educated, rude, uncultivated people, to whom it has not
been given to understand human affairs and who are
still less qualified to discuss things divine, — for such it
is sufficient to look at what is before their eyes.

XIII. "If, however, any one of you desires to philo-
sophize, if he is capable of it, let him, if he can, imitate
the example of Socrates, the prince of wisdom. When-
ever that illustrious man was asked about heavenly things,
he answered, as is well known : ' That which is above us
has nothing to do with us.' 2 Justly, therefore, the oracle
paid a tribute to his remarkable wisdom. He himself
clearly perceived that he was put before all other men by
the oracle, not because he had found out everything, but
because he had learnt that he knew nothing ; the height
of wisdom is the confession of ignorance. This was the
source of the prudent scepticism in most important
questions which distinguished Arcesilas,3 and later

1 The Christians did this to avoid any practices similar to those
of the heathen. Later they made use of flowers to decorate the
graves and sprinkled perlumes over them.

1 Ceecilius' sceptical interpretation of these words misrepresents
Socrates' meaning. The oracle which proclaimed him the wisest
of men ran : " Sophocles is wise, Euripides is wise, but Socrates is
wisest of all."

3 Arcesilas (about 315-240 B.C.), Greek philosopher, founder
of the so-called Middle Academy. He is said to have taught that
we can know nothing, not even the fact that we know nothing.

48 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

Carneades x and several Academicians 2 ; this attitude
enables the ignorant to philosophize with caution, the
learned with ostentation. Is not the hesitation of
Simonides 3 the lyric poet worthy of the admiration and
imitation of all ?

" When the tyrant 4 Hiero asked him what he thought
about the gods and their nature, he first asked for a day
to consider ; the next day he put off his answer for two
days more, and then, in spite of the hints given him,
asked for another two days. At last, when Hiero asked
the reason of his long delay, he answered : ' The more
carefully and deliberately I examine the matter, the more
obscure does the truth appear.' I also am of opinion that
things which are doubtful should be left as they are ;
and, since so many distinguished men are unable to make
up their minds, we must not hastily and rashly take
one side or the other, lest an old wives' superstition
should be introduced or religion be entirely destroyed."

XIV. Having finished his speech, Csecilius, beaming
with joy (for the vehemence of his outburst had soothed

Probability is the utmost that can be attained, and this is sufficient
as a practical rule of life.

1 Carneades (214-129 B.C.), Greek philosopher, founder of the
so-called New Academy. Like Arcesilas, he denied the possibility of
knowledge and admitted probability, of which he distinguished
three decrees.

1 The name given to the followers of Plato, who are generally
divided into three schools, called the Old, Middle, and New
Academies. The Middle Academy developed a sceptical tendency,
further emphasized in the New.

* Simonides of Ceos (556-468 B.C.), celebrated Greek lyric poet.
During the last part of his life he was attached to the court of
Hiero, despot of Syracuse.

4 The word does not necessarily imply cruelty or injustice, when
used of the Greek "tyrants," many ot whom were wise and bene-
ficent rulers. It means one who exercises arbitrary or despotic
power.

MINUCIUS FELIX 49

his indignant excitement), turned to Octavius and asked :
" Has Octavius, one of the tribe of Plautus, the best of
bakers l but the worst of philosophers, anything to say in
reply to this ? "

" Stop jeering at him," I interrupted ; " you have no
right to vaunt your carefully arranged speech, before the
matter has been more fully discussed- on both sides,
especially as the aim of your argument is not glory, but
truth. Certainly I have been greatly delighted by your
varied and subtle arguments, but I am more deeply
impressed — not in reference to the present discussion,
but to argument in general — by the feeling that, in most
cases, our attitude towards even the clearest truth is
affected by the orator's talents and the power of his
eloquence. This, it is well known, is due to the hearers'
easy nature ; they allow their minds to be diverted from
attention to things by the allurement of words; they
assent without discrimination to all that is said, being
unable to distinguish the true from the false, and they are
unaware that what seems incredible may contain a truth
and what is probable may be false. And so, the more
they believe the asseverations of others, the more fre-
quently they are refuted by more skilful debaters : thus,
being continually the dupes of their own rashness, they
shift the blame and the responsibility for their own
judgement and complain of the uncertainty of things ;
they prefer to condemn everything and to leave all in
doubt rather than express a decided opinion upon things
that always prove deceptive. Therefore we must beware

1 The general allusion is to the poverty and insignificance of the
Christians. Plautus, the great Latin comedy writer, is said to have
worked for a miller. Instead of pistorum ("bakers") others read
Ch'istianorum, or ictorum (= furisconsultorutn), in allusion to
Octavius's profession.
D

50 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

of becoming possessed with hatred of all speeches what-
ever, which would cause numbers of simple-minded
persons to be carried away by execration and hatred of
all mankind. For those who are careless and credulous
are deceived by those whom they thought to be good ; by
a similar kind of mistake they regard all with suspicion,
and fear as dishonourable those whom they might
have considered most worthy. This is the reason of our
anxiety. Every matter is capable of discussion from
two points of view. On the one side is truth, though
generally difficult to find ; on the other a wonderful
acuteness, which sometimes by its copious language apes
the certainty of an undisputed proof. We must therefore
consider each point by itself as carefully as we can, so that
while duly appreciating subtlety of argument, we may at
the same time be able to pick up, approve, and adopt
what is right."

XV. " You are deviating from the duty of a conscien-
tious judge," said Csecilius ; " it is very wrong of you to
weaken the force of my pleading by interposing so
weighty an argument, since it is for Octavius to refute
each point, at present untouched and not yet mooted, if
he can." "As for your charge," I answered, "unless I
am mistaken, my words were spoken in the general
interest My idea was that we should examine everything
most carefully and base our judgement not on bombastic
eloquence but on the solid foundation of facts. But, as
you justly complain, our attention must no longer be
diverted ; let us hear the answer of our friend Januarius,1
who is eager to speak, in perfect silence."

XVI. Then said Octavius : " I will reply to the best
of my ability ; at the same time you must help me to

1 i.e. Octavius.

MINUCIUS FELIX 51

wash away bitter and disgraceful abuse with the water
of truth.

" I will not deny that at first the opinion of my friend
Natalis seemed so hesitating, vague, undecided and
uncertain, that I could not make out whether it was
upset by his own shrewdness, or wavered through error.
For his opinion varies ; at one time he declares his
belief in the existence of the gods, at another disputes it,
with the result that the indefiniteness of his argument
makes the purport of my reply even more indefinite and
ill-founded. But I do not wish to believe — indeed, I do
not believe — that there is any craftiness in Natalis ;
subtlety and trickery are far removed from his simple
character. What then? Just as a man who does not
know the right road, when as is often the case it
divides into several, is perplexed and anxious, not
venturing to choose one or to try all ; in like manner, if
a man has no fixed criterion of truth, whenever an ill-
founded suggestion is brought to his notice, his opinions,
always hesitating, disappear altogether. And so it is no
wonder that Csecilius is often tossed about, excited, and
wavering in the midst of contradictions and inconsis-
tencies. To prevent this going farther, I will refute and
disprove his arguments, however varied they are, by the
confirmation and establishment of a single truth ; thus he
will be freed from all further doubt and hesitation.

" And since my brother has given vent to his feelings
and declares that he is vexed, angry, indignant, and
grieved that certain uneducated, poor, and inexperienced
people should discuss heavenly things, he must not forget
that all human beings, without distinction of age, sex, or
rank, are born capable of reason and able to under-
stand ; that they do not obtain wisdom by chance, but

52 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

that it is implanted in them by nature. Even the philo-
sophers themselves, or any other scientific discoverers
whose names have been handed down, were considered
common, ignorant, and half-naked, before their keenness
of intellect brought lustre on their name. Indeed, the
rich are so taken up with their wealth that they are in
the habit of thinking more of gold than of heaven ; it is
our poor disciples who have both found wisdom and
have handed down its teaching to others. Hence it is
clear that talent is neither to be obtained by wealth
nor acquired by study, but is created within us at the
time when the mind itself is formed. And so there is no
reason to be grieved or indignant, if any one, whoever he
be, examines things divine and expresses his opinion ; x
it is not the authority of the disputant, but the truth
contained in the disputation that needs examination.
The less learned the language, the clearer the argument,
since it is not disguised by bombastic eloquence or charm
of style, but is supported, in its true character, by the
rule of truth.

XVII. " I do not reject the principle which Csecilius has
endeavoured to establish as one of great importance —
namely, that man ought thoroughly to examine and
acquire a knowledge of himself, his nature, his origin,
and his destination ; whether he is a compound of
elements, a skilful arrangement of atoms, or, preferably,
created, formed, and animated by God. But it is just
this that we cannot investigate and bring to light without
an examination of the universe. All things are so closely
connected, combined, and linked together, that it is
impossible to understand the nature of man without
thoroughly examining the nature of the deity, just as it is
1 Reading qua scntiat prsfcrat.

MINUCIUS FELIX 53

impossible successfully to administer affairs of state with-
out a knowledge of this state that is common to all — the
world. Above all we should remember in what respect we
chiefly differ from the beasts of the field ; they, ever
bending forward with heads towards the ground, are
adapted to look for nothing but their food ; we, with
looks erect and eyes lifted to heaven,1 endowed with
speech and reason, whereby we recognize, feel, and
imitate God, neither ought to nor can we ignore the
heavenly brightness that thrusts itself before our eyes
and senses. It would be extremely like sacrilege to look
on the ground for that which can only be found on
high.

" Hence I am the more convinced that those who main-
tain that the arrangement of the entire universe is not
the perfected work of divine intelligence, but a mere ball,
the result of the fortuitous adherence of fragments of
matter, are themselves devoid of sense and understand-
ing, even of the power of sight. Lift up your eyes to
heaven, examine what is below and around you ; what can
be clearer, more certain, more obvious than that there
exists a supreme being endowed with the highest intelli-
gence, by whom the whole of nature is inspired, moved,
nourished, and governed ? 2

" Look at the sky itself — its vast expanse, its rapid revo-
lution, whether studded with stars by night or illuminated
by the sun by day ; you will at once understand how
wonderful, how divine is the equilibrium maintained by
the supreme ruler of the universe. Consider also how
the course of the sun makes the year, how the moon, by

1 Ovid, Metam. i. 84.

* Almost word for word from Cicero, Nat. Dear. ii. 2. Lactan-
tius (Div. Inst. ii. 5) takes for granted what is here proved.

54 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

its increase, wane, and disappearance brings round the
month. I need only mention the successive recurrence
of darkness and light, to provide the alternate renewal of
work and rest. I must leave the astrologers to speak at
greater length about the stars, their influence on the
course of navigation, how they usher in the time for
ploughing and harvest. The creation, development, and
arrangement of all these things not only needed a supreme
architect and perfect intelligence, but they cannot even
be felt, perceived, and understood without a supreme
effort of reason and understanding.

"What, again, about the order of the seasons of the
year and its fruits, marked by constancy amidst variety ?
Do not spring with its flowers, summer with its harvests,
autumn with its ripe and delicious fruits, winter so
necessary for the growth of the olives1 — do not all
alike bear witness to their author and creator ? This
order would be soon upset, unless it were maintained by
a supreme intelligence. Further, what foresight is shown
in the insertion of the medium temperature of spring
and autumn, so that we may not be nipped with cold
by a perpetual winter nor scorched with heat by a
perpetual summer ; and the transition from one season
to another, as the year retraces its course, is hardly
noticed and does no harm. Look at the sea, it is limited
by the boundary fixed by the shore.2 See how all the
plants draw life from the bowels of the earth. Gaze
upon the ocean, its alternate ebb and flow. Consider
the springs with their inexhaustible supply of water.

1 Olivitas = the olive-vintage, or the time for gathering the olives
(generally the beginning of December).

2 Jeremiah v. 22: "Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: which
have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree,
that it cannot pass it."

MINUCIUS FELIX 55

Observe the rivers, ever flowing in their regular course.
What shall I say of the apt arrangement of the steep
mountains, of the winding hills, of the outstretched
plains? What of the various means of defence against
each other possessed by animals ? Some are armed with
horns, others protected by teeth, others shod with hoofs,
others furnished with sharp stings ; some are protected by
their swiftness of foot or soaring pinions. The very beauty
of our form declares the workmanship of God ; our
upright attitude, uplifted countenance, our eyes set in
the top of the face as in a watchtower, and all our other
organs of sense in their allotted positions, as in a fortress.1

XVIII. " It would take too long to go through all the
details. There is no single member of the human body
which is not either necessary or ornamental ; and it is even
more surprising that, although we all have the same form,
each one of us has different features ; thus we all seem
alike, while in reality we are all found to be unlike each
other.

" What is the meaning of birth ? is not the desire of
procreation implanted in us by God, so that the mother's
breast may be full of milk as the offspring matures, and
that the tender fruit may grow up nourished by its
copious flow ?

"But God takes thought not only for the universe
but for each of its parts. Britain lacks sunshine, but is
refreshed by the warmth of the sea that surrounds it ; *
the river Nile moderates the drought of Egypt ; the

1 Cicero, Nat. Deor. ii. 56.

2 This was the general opinion of the ancients : Strabo, iv. 5, 2 :
"The climate is rather rainy than snowy; even when the w> ather
is fine there is always a certain amount of mist, so that during the
day the sun is only visible about noon for three or four hours."
Tacitus, Agricola, 12: "Rain is frequent and the sky lowering,
although the cold is not excessive,"

56 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

Euphrates compensates Mesopotamia for the want of
rain ; the Indus is said both to sow and water the East.1
If you entered a house and found it carefully kept,
properly arranged, and well furnished, you would certainly
believe that it had an owner, far superior to all those fine
things, who looked after it. It is the same in the case
of this house called the universe. When you see provi-
dence, order, and law prevailing in heaven and earth,
believe that there is a ruler and author of the universe,
more beautiful even than the stars and the different parts
of the world.

" But perhaps, since there is no doubt about the exist-
ence of a providence, you think you ought to inquire
whether the heavenly kingdom is governed by a single
ruler or according to the will of several. The solution of
the question presents little difficulty to one who considers
the earthly kingdoms, which are modelled on the celestial.
When has an imperial partnership ever begun in good
faith or been dissolved without bloodshed? I say
nothing about the Persians, who selected their ruler by
omens drawn from the neighing of horses ; 2 I pass over
the story of the Theban pair,3 now long forgotten. The
story of the twins,4 fighting for a kingdom of shepherds
and huts, is well known. The wars between father-in-
law and son-in-law 5 spread all over the world, and the

1 Cicero, Nat. Deor. ii. 52, 130.

2 The story is told of the elevation of Darius Hystaspes to the
throne (Herodotus, iii. 84; Justin, i. 10).

3 Eteocles and Polynices to whom thrir father CEdipus had left
the throne ot Thebes on condition that they reigned alternately for
a year. Eteocles, having broken the agreement, was attacked by
his broiher (the expedition of the Seven against Thebes). Both the
brothers fell in single combat with each other.

4 Romulus and Remus.
8 Pompey and Caesar.

MINUCIUS FELIX 57

fortunes of so mighty an empire had not room for two
rulers.

" Consider other instances. The bees have only one
king, the flocks only one head, the herds only one leader.
Can you believe that in heaven the supreme power is
divided, and that the entire majesty of that true, divine
authority is broken up? It is obvious that God, the
father of all, has neither beginning nor end ; he who gives
existence to all, has given himself eternal life ; before the
world was created he was a world in himself. What-
soever things there are he calls into being by his word,
arranges them by his wisdom, and perfects them by his
might.

" He is invisible, for he is too bright for us to look upon.
He is impalpable, for he is too pure for us to touch.1
He is incomprehensible, for he is beyond our ken, —
infinite, immense, and his real greatness is known to
himself alone. Our mind is too limited to understand
him ; therefore we can only form a just estimate of him,
by calling him ' inestimable.' I will frankly state my
opinion : the man who thinks that he knows the great-
ness of God, depreciates it ; he who does not desire to
depreciate it, is ignorant of it Nor need you seek a
name for God ; God is his name.2 Names are only
necessary where a large number of persons have to be
distinguished individually by special marks and desig-
nations ; for God, who is alone, the name God is all-
sufficient. If I should speak of him as father, you
would think of him as an earthly father ; if as king, you
would imagine him as a king of this world ; if as lord,
you would certainly understand him to be mortal. Take

1 Tertullian, Apol. 17.

8 Origen, Contra Celsum, vi. 65.

58 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

away all additional names and you will behold his
splendour. On this point all agree with me. When
the common people stretch out their hands to heaven,
they say nothing but 'God' and 'God is great,' or ' God
is true,' ' if God grant.' Is that the natural *• language
of the people or a form of words used by the Christian
in confessing his faith ? Even those who are in favour
of Jupiter as their supreme lord, are only mistaken in
the name ; they agree with us that there is a single
undivided authority.

XIX. " I also find the poets2 proclaiming one father of
gods and men, and that the mind of man varies accord-
ing to the day which the father of all has appointed for
him.8 What can be clearer, truer, or more apposite
than what Maro of Mantua says ? 4 'In the beginning
heaven and earth ' and the other parts of the world
'are nourished by a spirit within and moved by a
pervading mind, whence come the race of man, flocks
and herds,' and all other living things. In another
passage 5 he calls that mind and breath God. These are
his words : ' God pervades all lands, the tracts of the
sea, and high heaven, whence come the race of man,
flocks and herds, fire and water.' What else do we also
declare God to be but mind, intelligence, and spirit ?

" If you like, let us review the teaching of the philoso-
phers.6 You will find that, although their language

1 Cicero, Nat. Dear. i. 16, 43 . In other words the idea of God
is an " innate " idea.

2 Ennius and Homer. Cicero, Nat. Dear. ii. 2, 4

8 Homer, Odyssey, xviii. 135, 136, translated by Augustine, De
Civ. Dei, v. 8: "Talcs sunt hominum mentes, quales pater ip»e
Jupiter auctiferas lustravit lumine terras."

4 /Kneid, vi. 724.

8 Georgia, iv. 221 ; sEneid, i. 743.

6 The following account of the theories of the early philosophers is
taken from Cicero (Nat. Dear. i. 10), in many cases word for word.

MINUCIUS FELIX 59

varies, they are essentially at one and in agreement as to
this one point. I omit those ignorant men of old1
who earned the name of Wise Men from their sayings.
Let Thales of Miletus come first, who was the first to
discuss heavenly things. That same, Thales held water
to be the first principle of all things, God being the mind
which formed everything from it. [This idea of water
and spirit is too lofty and sublime to have been invented
by man, but must have been suggested to him by God.2]
So you see that the opinion of the first of philosophers
is in complete agreement with our own. Next Anaxi-
menes, and after him Diogenes of Apollonia, teach that
the infinite and boundless air is God ; here, again, they
agree as to the existence of a divinity. According to
Anaxagoras, God is the arrangement and movement of
an infinite intelligence ; * the god of Pythagoras is also
a mind pervading and diffused throughout the entire
universe, from which the life of all living creatures is
derived. It is well known that Xenophanes held God to
be the infinite All, combined with intelligence ; that
Antisthenes 4 maintained that the gods of different
peoples were many, but that there was only one supreme
god of nature. Speusippus recognized as god a certain
vital force, by which everything is governed. Does not
Democritus, although the originator of the atomic theory,
generally give the name of god to nature, which sends
forth images of things, and to intelligence ? Strato also
calls nature God. Even the well-known Epicurus, who

1 The so-called Seven Sages, or wise men of Greece.

a Some editors bracket this passage as a gloss.

8 The ordinary reading here translated is unsatisfactory. Reading
opus for deus, the meaning will be : " the arrangement and move-
ment (of the universe) is the work of an infinite intelligence."

4 Nat. Dear, i. 13, 32.

60 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

pretends that the gods are either idle or non-existent,
sets nature above them. Aristotle, although he frequently
contradicts himself, assigns supreme power to one; at
one time he calls mind god, at another the world, at
another he subordinates the world to god.1 Heraclides
of Pontus also, though not always consistent, ascribes a
divine intellect to the world. Theophrastus, too, varies,
at one time investing the world with supreme authority,
at another the divine mind. Zeno, Chrysippus, and
Cleanthes, similarly inconsistent, all three hark back
to the idea of the unity of providence. Cleanthes at
one time argues that mind, at another that soul, at
another that aether, but, generally, that reason is god.
His master Zeno considers the beginning of all things
to be natural and divine law, but sometimes aether,
sometimes reason ; further, by explaining Juno as the air,
Jupiter as the sky, Neptune as the sea, Vulcan as fire, and
by similarly demonstrating that the other gods of the vulgar
were only natural elements, he vigorously attacks and
refutes a common error. Chrysippus says almost the same :
believing that god is a divine force, nature endowed with
reason, the universe, or the necessity of fate, he follows
Zeno in his physiological interpretation of the poems of
Homer, Hesiod, and Orpheus. Diogenes the Babylonian
follows the same line in discussing and explaining the
birth of Jupiter, the origin of Minerva, and other
similar incidents, which he regards as the names of
things, not of gods. Xenophon, the follower of Socrates,
asserts that the form of the true god is invisible and
therefore should not be looked for ; 2 Ariston the Stoic
that he is absolutely incomprehensible.3 Both of them,

1 Nat. Dear. i. 13, 33. 2 Ibid. i. 12, 31.

3 Ibid. i. 14, 37.

MINUCIUS FELIX 61

though they despaired of understanding it, were conscious
of the majesty of God. Plato speaks more plainly, both
in substance and expression, concerning god ; his lan^
guage would be quite divine, were it not sometimes
debased by an alloy of political bias. Thus, in the Titnceus v
Plato's god is by his very name the author of the world,
the creator of the soul, the maker of all things in heaven
and earth, whose great and extraordinary power makes
it difficult to find him ; and even if he were found, it
would be impossible to speak of him to all men. This
is almost exactly what we say ; we both know God and
call him the Father of all things, but never speak of him
publicly unless we are asked.

XX. " I have now stated the opinions of nearly all the
most distinguished philosophers. They describe one
god under different names, so that one might think
either that the present-day Christians are philosophers or
that the early philosophers were Christians.

" But if the world is ruled by providence and governed
by the will of a single god, we ought not to allow the
ignorant men of antiquity, delighted or captivated by
their fables, to hurry us into the mistake of agreeing
with them ; they are refuted by the opinions of their own
philosophers, supported by the authority of reason and
antiquity. Our ancestors were so ready to believe any
lies, that they even accepted without thinking such mon-
strous prodigies as Scylla with many bodies, Chimsera of
many shapes, Hydra ever growing again from its fruitful
wounds, Centaurs like horse and rider grown together. All
the fictions of tradition were eagerly listened to. What of

1 28 C, 29 A ; cp. Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticon, vi. 68 ;
Lactantius, De Ira, u, 13 ; Tertullian, Apol. 46, 9 ; Origen, Contra
Celsutn, 7, 42.

62 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

those old wives' fables, of men being changed into birds
and beasts, into trees and flowers ? If such things had
ever happened, they would happen now ; but since they
cannot happen now, they have never happened. Our
ancestors were similarly mistaken in regard to the gods ;
thoughtless, credulous, uneducated, simple-minded, they
were ready to believe anything. Their religious worship
of their kings, their desire of seeing them in the form
of images after their death, their eagerness to keep the
memory of them alive in statues, caused what had
originally been intended as a means of consolation to
become objects of worship. Finally : before the world
was thrown open to commerce, before the ritual and
customs of the different nations were intermingled, each
people revered its founder, or a famous commander,
or a modest queen superior to her sex, or the inventor of
some art or public boon, or a citizen1 worthy of remem-
brance; in this manner both the dead were rewarded
and an example was given to posterity.

XXI. " Read the writings of historians or philosophers ;
you will find it is as I say. Euhemerus 2 maintains that
men were deified as the reward of their services in war or
peace ; he records the day of their birth, the place where
they were born and buried, and locates them in different
districts : Jupiter in Dicte, Apollo in Delphi, Isis in
Pharos, Ceres in Eleusis.3 Prodicus4 speaks of men

1 Another reading is ut — that is, "revered ... as a citizen
worthy of remembrance."

* Euhemerus of Messina (c. 300 B.C.), belonging to the Cyrenaic
school of philosophy, gave a rationalistic and anthropomorphic
explanation of ancient mythology.

3 Dicte in Crete ; Delphi at the foot of Mount Parnassus, the
home of the famous oracle of Apollo ; Pharos, an island opposite
Alexandria ; Eleusis, near Athens, where the Eleusinian mysteries
were celebrated.

* Nat. Dear. i. 42, 118.

MINUCIUS FELIX 63

admitted amongst the gods, who, as the result of their
travels, conferred great blessings upon mankind by the
discovery of new fruits. Persseus l pursues the same line
of argument, giving the same names to the fruits dis-
covered and their discoverers, just as the comic poet
says, 'Venus without Bacchus and Ceres is cold.'2
The famous Alexander the Great of Macedon, in a
remarkable letter 3 to his mother, asserts that the secret
of men made gods was revealed to him by a priest 4 who
was afraid of his power ; he makes Vulcan 5 supreme, and
next the family of Jupiter.6 Saturn, the head of this
large family, according to all the ancient Greek and
Roman writers, was a man.7 The historians Nepos 8 and
Cassius 9 are aware of this, Thallus 10 and Diodorus n say
the same. This Saturn, a fugitive Trom Crete in fear of
his son's rage, came to Italy, where he was hospitably
received by Janus. In return, being a paltry Greek,
though a man of some culture, he taught those untutored
rustics many useful arts, such as writing, coinage, and the
manufacture of various implements. He preferred that

1 Nat. Dear. i. 15, 38.

2 Terence, Eunuchus, iv. 5, 6.

3 This letter, referred to by St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, viii. 5
and 27) and other Christian writers, is now regarded as apocryphal.
Some modern authorities consider that it was a forgery intended to
assist the spread of Christianity.

* According to Augustine, the priest's name was Leo.
8 Phtha of Egyptian mythology (see Nat. Deor. iii. 22).

6 See Waltzing s Studia Minudana for the altered position of
the matter in the text.

7 Compare the passage in Tertullian (Apol. 10).

8 Cornelius Nepos (ist century B.C.), the author of the well-
known Lives of illustrious men.

9 Cassius Hemina, Roman annalist, lived during the time of the
third Punic war.

10 Thallus, author of a history of Syria, lived about the same time
as Cassius Hemina.

11 Diodorus Siculus (ist century B.C.), author of a voluminous
work called a Historical Library.

64 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

his retreat should be called Latium, since it had afforded
him a safe hiding-place,1 and he and Janus have both
handed down their name to posterity, the one in the
city Saturnia, the other in the Janiculum.2 Certainly,
then, he who was a fugitive and in hiding was a man, the
son of a man and the father of a man ; he was only said
to be the son of Earth and Heaven, because the Italians
did not know who his parents were, just as to this day
we speak of those who unexpectedly present themselves
as if they were sent down from heaven, but call those
who are obscure and of ignoble birth, ' sons of earth.'

" After the expulsion of Saturn, his son Jupiter reigned
in Crete, had sons there, and died there ; the cave of
Jupiter can still be seen, his grave is still shown, and his
human nature is proved by the sacrifices offered him.

" It would be a waste of time to go through all his
descendants and to set forth the entire lineage of that
family, since the mortal nature that was established in the
case of their first parents was communicated to the
rest by the mere order of succession. But perhaps you
make gods of them after their death, just as Romulus
was deified by the perjury of Proculus,3 Juba by the
will of the Moors,4 and all the other deified kings who
are placed amongst the gods rather to do honour to
their reign than as a confirmation of their divine nature.
In fact, the name is bestowed upon them against their

1 From latere, to lie hid. Etymologically, the word really means
"the broad, flat land."

2 A long ridge on the right bank of the Tiber, the highest of
the hills ot Rome.

8 Proculus, a Roman senator, who declared on oath that he had
seen Romulus admitted amongst the gods, and that he had ex-
pressed the desire to be worshipped as Quirinus (Livy, i. 16)

4 Juba the Second (died about A.D. 19), King of Numidia and
subsequently of Mauretania. He was a man of considerable culture
and the author of several historical and other works.

MINUCIUS FELIX 65

will ; they would rather continue to be men, they
are afraid of becoming gods, and in spite of their age
do not wish to be deified. The dead cannot become
gods, since a god cannot die ; nor can any who are born,
since everything that is born dies ; but that alone is
divine, which has neither beginning nor end. For if
gods were once born why are they not born now ? Can
it be that Jupiter is too old, that Juno has become
barren, that Minerva has grown grey before she has had
a child ? Is it not more probable that the supposed
generation of gods has come to an end, because fables
of this kind are no longer believed ? Moreover, if the
gods could have children but could not die, the number
of gods would exceed that of men ; in that case heaven
could not contain them, nor air hold them, nor earth
support them. This proves that those gods were men,
of whom we read and know that they were born and died.
XXII. "No one can doubt, then, that the common
people will supplicate and publicly worship the con-
secrated images of such men, as long as the imagination
and understanding of the ignorant is led astray by artistic
beauty of style, blinded by the glitter of gold, deadened
by the sheen of silver and the whiteness of ivory. But
if one calls to mind the instruments and machines used
in fashioning every statue, he will feel ashamed of being
afraid of the material on which a workman has exercised
his ingenuity to make it into a god. For the god that is
made of wood, perhaps a piece of a funeral pile or a
gallows, is hung up, hewn, chipped, and planed ; the god
of gold x or silver is melted down from a dirty vessel, as
was often done by a king of Egypt,2 beaten with hammers

1 Reading aureus for aeretis.

* Amasis (see Herodotus, ii. 172).

66 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

and fashioned on the anvil ; the god of stone is hewn,
carved and polished by some vile wretch, and is no more
aware of the disgraceful nature of his birth l than of the
honour paid him by your veneration. But perhaps you
may say, the stone, wood, or silver is not yet a god :
when, then, does it become one ? It is cast, fashioned,
and carved, but is not yet a god; it is soldered, put
together, and set up, but still it is not a god ; it is be-
decked, consecrated, and supplicated ; then at last it is a
god, since man willed it to be so and has declared it holy.
" How much juster is the estimate of your gods shown
in the natural instincts of dumb animals ! Mice,
swallows, hawks, knowing that they cannot feel, peck
them, tread on them, perch upon them, and, unless
driven away, build nests even in the mouth of your
god ; spiders spin their web over his face and suspend
their threads from his head. You wipe them, clean
them, scrape them ; thus, those whom you have yourselves
made are both protected and dreaded by you.2 Not one
of you remembers that he ought to know God before he
worships him ; rashly eager to obey your elders, you prefer
to assent to the errors of others rather than trust yourself,
while knowing nothing about that which you dread.
Thus in gold and silver is avarice consecrated ; thus the
form of useless statues has been confirmed; thus
Roman superstition has originated. If you examine
their rites, how many are ridiculous, how many even
pitiable ! Some run about naked during the cruel
winter,3 others walk about with felt caps on their heads,

1 Tertullian, Apol. 12.

z Arnobius (Adv. Gentes, vi. 16) employs the same argument.

3 The reference is to the festival of Lupercalia (February 15), at
which the priests, called Luperci, ran about naked, striking those
whom they met with thongs as an antidote to sterility.

MINUCIUS FELIX 67

carry round old shields,1 beat drums, carry the gods
from street to street, asking alms.2 Certain shrines
may only be entered once a year,3 some it is forbidden
to enter at all ; 4 to some, men are refused admission,
and women are excluded from certain rites ; 6 at certain
ceremonies even the presence of a slave is a crime that
calls for atonement. Some shrines are crowned by a
woman who has had only one husband, others by one
who has had several, and in some instances a woman
who has on several occasions been guilty of adultery 6 is
religiously sought for. Would not the man who offers
libations of his own blood and makes his wounds an
occasion for supplication, be better without any religion
at all than with such a religion as that ? 7 Do not those
who thus mutilate themselves insult the god whom they
hope to propitiate ? If God wanted eunuchs, he would
create them, not have them made. It is easy to under-
stand how half-insane, foolish, and wrong-headed persons
fall into such absurdities, and how those who go astray
from the truth find mutual support in their very numbers.
In fact, the large number of madmen is the excuse for
the general madness.

XXIII. "Lastly, consider the sacred rites and the

1 The Salii (priests of Mars), wearing conical caps (apices),
carried round the sacred shields (ancilia) which were supposed to
have fallen from heaven.

2 The priests of Cybele, called Galli, went through the streets,
beating upon drums made of asses' skins, carrying the image of the
goddess and asking alms.

3 Such as the temple of Ceres and Proserpine in Arcadia, and
that of Dindymene (Cybele) at Thebes.

4 The temple of Neptune at Mantinea was said to have always
been shut.

6 Men were not admitted to the rites of Bona Dea, Vesta, and
Ceres, nor women to those of Hercules.

8 Aduiteria may mean simply "marriages."

7 Referring to the priests of Bellona and Cybele.

68 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

mysteries themselves. You will find that the history of
these wretched gods is one of tragic ends, deaths and
burials, sorrow and lamentation. Isis,1 with her Cyno-
cephalus and shaven priests, laments and wails, seeking
her son ; her wretched votaries beat their breasts and
imitate the grief of the unhappy mother ; soon, after the
little one has been found, Isis rejoices, the priests exult,
Cynocephalus as the finder glories in his achievement.
Thus, year in, year out, they always lose what they find
or find what they lose. Is it not absurd to weep for
what one ought to worship or to worship what one
ought to weep for ? Yet these rites, of Egyptian origin,
are now practised in Rome,2 where you can play the
fool with the swallow and rattle of Isis, and at the tomb
of your Serapis or Osiris,3 which is empty now that his
limbs have been scattered abroad.4

" Ceres, with a lighted torch, girdled with snakes, full of
care and anxiety, searches for her daughter Libera,5 who
was carried off during her wandering and dishonoured ;
this is the meaning of the Eleusinian mysteries. And
what are the rites of Jupiter ? A goat is his nurse ; 6 the
child is removed, to prevent his being devoured by his

1 The story of Isis represents her at one time as searching for her
husband, Osiris, slain by Tryphon, at another for her son Horus or
Harpocration. She is assisted by Anubis with the dog's head (Cyno-
cephalus) and by the priests with shaved heads (Isiaci) ; cp. Lactan-
tius (Div, Inst. i. 21).

* The worship of Serapis met with considerable opposition in
Rome ; after it had been prohibited and the altars broken, it was,
after varying fortunes, restored by Augustus.

8 Serapis or Osiris are alternative names.

4 This passage is corrupt, and its position in the text is not clear.
Isis is said to have been represented with a swallow, as a bird
suitable for mournful occasions. Others take hirundo to mean a
"serpent."

6 Proserpine, who was carried off to the underworld by Pluto
while gathering flowers at Enna in Sicily.

8 Amalthea.

MINUCIUS FELIX 69

greedy father ; l the tinkling cymbals of the Corybantes 2
are loudly beaten, that the father may not hear the child's
cries. . . . Again, do not the very form and appearance
of your gods show their ridiculous and disgraceful nature ?
Vulcan is lame and feeble ; Apollo beardless in spite of
his years, while .^Esculapius, although the son of the
ever youthful Apollo, is full-bearded ; Neptune has grey
eyes, Minerva blue, Juno those of an ox ; Mercury has
wings on his feet, Pan hoofs, Saturn fetters. Janus has
two faces, so that he appears to be walking backwards ;
Diana as a huntress has her dress girt up high, at Ephesus
she is represented with a number of swelling breasts,3 as
Trivia 4 she is a dreadful being with three heads and
many hands. Even your Jupiter himself is sometimes
represented as beardless, in other places as bearded;
when he is called Hammon 5 he has horns, as Capito-
linus 6 he wields the thunderbolt, as Latiaris 7 he is covered
with blood, as Feretrius he is no longer heard of.8 Not
to waste time over all these Jupiters, I will merely say
that he has as many monstrous forms as names. Erigone
hanged herself, that she might shine amongst the stars as

1 Saturn.

1 The Corybantes were the priests of Rhea Cybele, the Great
Mother.

* Uberibus. The MS. reading verubus has been explained as
"iron rods by which the statue was fixed in its position."

* Her temples were erected at a place where "three ways"
met.

8 Hammon was an Egyptian (or Libyan) deity, worshipped in
the form of a ram, identified with Jupiter.
' God of the Capitol.

7 During the/erice Latina (the festival of the allied Latins on the
Alban Hill), a criminal was sacrificed on the altar of Jupiter Latiaris.

8 Feretrius means the subduer of enemies (ferire, to strike). The
MS. reading, here translated, is obscure. Various alterations have
been suggested : (font's abditur, " is covered with gifts " ; manu
jacitur, "is hurled by the hand," with reference to a stone called
Jupiter Lapis ; non aditur, " is no longer visited."

70 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

the Virgin ; l Castor and Pollux die alternately that both
may live ; ^Esculapius is struck by lightning 2 that he
may rise a god ; Hercules is consumed by fire on Mount
Oeta,3 to divest himself of his mortal nature.

XXIV. " All these fables and delusions we learn from
ignorant parents and — what is worse — improve upon
them as the result of our own training and studies,
especially the works of the poets, whose authority has
been exceedingly prejudicial to the cause of truth. For
this reason Plato was quite right to exclude the famous
poet Homer, whom he had loaded with praise and
garlands, from the model state set up by him in his
dialogue the Republic.* For it was Homer in particular
who, in his story of the Trojan war, made your gods take
part in human affairs and actions (although certainly he
was only joking), set pairs of them fighting, represented
Venus wounded, Mars fettered, wounded, and put to
flight. He tells us how Jupiter was set free by Briareus,
who prevented his being bound by the rest of the gods ;
how he wept for his son Sarpedon with tears of blood,
since he could not save him from death.6 According to
another poet,6 Hercules has to carry away dung7 and

1 Erigone, daughter of Icarius, King of Sparta, who hanged herself
out of grief at the death of her father. She was afterwards placed
among the constellations as Virgo.

1 Pluto accused him of wrongfully practising his art and depriving
him of the dead by his great medical skill.

8 In Thessaly.

* "If Homer were to visit our city and show a desire to sing his
poems to us, we should venerate him as a holy, wonderful, and
agreeable poet ; but, after having poured perfumes over his head
and crowned him with a garland of wool, we would drive him out
of our state and send him to another city " (iii. 398).

6 Tertullian, Apol. 14 ; see Iliad, i. 399 ; v. 330, 385 ; xvi.

459-

6 Ovid, Met. ix. 187.

7 Referring to the cleansing of the stables of Augeas.

MINUCIUS FELIX 71

Apollo tends the flocks of Admetus ; l Neptune built
walls for Laomedon, and the unlucky builder received no
pay for his work.2 Elsewhere, again,3 we read of the
forging of the thunderbolt of Jove and the arms of ^Eneas
on an anvil, although the sky, thunder, and lightning
were in existence long before Jupiter was born in Crete,
and a Cyclops could no more imitate the flashes of the
real thunderbolt than Jupiter could help fearing it. Why
need I speak of Mars and Venus caught in open adultery,4
and the shameful passion of Jupiter for Ganymede which
received divine sanction ? 5 All these stories have been
put forward to provide a certain justification for human
vices. By these and similar, even more attractive,
fictions and lies the minds of boys are corrupted ; they
grow up to the prime of life with the same stories deeply
rooted in their minds, and reach old age — miserable
wretches that they are ! — still of the same opinion,
although the truth is easy to find, if only they will seek
for it.

XXV. " But, according to you, it was just this supersti-
tion that gave the Romans their empire, increased it, and
set it on a firm footing, since their strength lay not so
much in their valour as in their religion and dutiful
conduct towards the gods. Everybody knows that
Roman justice, so remarkable and world-renowned, came
into being while the infant empire was still in its cradle ! 6
At the very outset, were not the Romans drawn together
by crime ? Was not the growth of their power due to the
immunity afforded by dread of their cruelty? The
original Romans gathered together in an asylum, to

1 Iliad, ii. 765. 2 Ibid. xxi. 443.

1 Virgil, sEneid, viii. 423. * Homer, Odyssey, viii. 266.

8 Ovid, Metam. x. 155. ' This sentence is ironical.

72 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

which had flocked numbers of desperate men, criminals,
lewd fellows, cut-throats, and traitors; and Romulus
himself, their leader and commander, to surpass his
people in crime, killed his own brother. Such were the
first beginnings of this religious state ! Soon afterwards,
they carried off, ridiculed, and violated young women
from other states, already betrothed and promised to a
husband, and even married women — an unparalleled
insult.1 To crown all, they made war upon their own
fathers-in-law and shed the blood of relatives. What
could have been more impious, more audacious, more
disgraceful than this shameless crime ? The result was,
that the other kings and later rulers, like Romulus,
made it their common practice to drive out their neigh-
bours from their territory, to overthrow the states nearest
to them together with their temples and altars, to drive
them into captivity, to grow greater by robbing others
and by their own crimes.

"Thus, all the territory that the Romans now hold,
cultivate, and occupy, has been acquired by barefaced
theft ; the temples have all been built with the proceeds of
the spoils of war, the destruction of cities, the murder
of priests, the plundering of the gods. It is an insult
and a mockery to serve the gods of the conquered, to
take them captive and, after defeating them, to offer
them homage ; to worship what one has taken by main
force, is to consecrate sacrilege, not gods. Thus the
Roman triumphs always involved offences against reli-
gion ; all trophies won from other nations were so
many robberies from the gods. The truth is, that the
Romans owed their greatness not to piety but to sacrilege
that went unpunished ; for they could not have looked
1 The rape of the Sabine women.

MINUCIUS FELIX 73

for assistance in their wars from the gods against whom
they had taken up arms, but whom they did not begin
to worship until they had triumphed over them. But
what can those gods of yours do for the Romans, seeing
that they were powerless to defend their own people
against your arms ?

" We know the native gods of Rome: Romulus, Picus,
Tiberinus, Consus, Pilumnus, Volumnus1; Cloacina2
was invented and her worship introduced by Tatius ;
Pavor (Fear) and Pallor (Paleness) by Hostilius 3 ; soon
afterwards Febris4 was deified by someone unknown;
such is the foster-mother5 of this city — superstition,
diseases, and infirmities. Surely Acca Larentia6 and
Flora,7 two shameful harlots, must be reckoned amongst
the diseases as well as amongst the deities of the
Romans.

"Of course,8 it was these gods who overcame the
resistance of the gods worshipped by other nations, and

1 Picus (woodpecker), son of Saturn, King of the Italian Aborigines,
changed by Circe into a woodpecker because he refused her ad-
vances. Tiberinus, the deified river Tiber. Consus, an old Italian
god of earth and agriculture, sometimes called Neptunus Equester ;
he also was the suggester of secret plans and of good counsel.
Pilumnus (woodpecker), guardian deity of married people and
children. Volumnus (well-wisher, from void), the protector of
children newly born.

2 Cloacina (more correctly Cluacina), the purifier, an epithet of
Venus, at whose statue the Romans purified themselves after the
Sabine war. The spelling Cloacina is due to a mistaken etymology
from cloaca, her statue being said to have been found in the great
sewer at Rome by Tatius, King of the Sabines (Livy, i. 10).

3 Tullus Hostilius, the third legendary king of Rome.

4 The personification of Fever. The Romans were very fond of
deifying such abstractions.

' Alumna must here be used in an active sense.

6 The nurse of Romulus.

7 The goddess of Flowers, whose festivals were often marked by
great licentiousness.

8 Ironical.

74 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

enlarged the Roman Empire ; for Thracian Mars, Cretan
Jupiter, Argive Samian or Phoenician Juno, Tauric Diana,
the Idaean mother,1 or those Egyptian gods (or rather
monsters) certainly never assisted you against their own
worshippers.

"But perhaps your maidens were more chaste, your
priests holier. Have not many of the Vestals been
punished for immorality, while others have escaped by
mere good luck ? Are not your temples haunts of vice,
managed by the priests ? And yet, before the Romans
existed, by divine dispensation Assyrians, Medes, Per-
sians, even Greeks and Egyptians long ruled over mighty
empires, although they had no priests, Arval brethren,2
Salii,3 Vestals, or Augurs, no chickens shut up in a
cage,4 by whose acceptance or rejection of their food
the destinies of the state were decided.

XXVI. " I now come to those auspices and auguries,
of which you have so laboriously collected examples to
prove that neglect of them always brings regret, their
observance good fortune. No doubt5 Claudius and
Flaminius and Junius 6 lost their armies because they
did not think it worth while to wait until the chickens
began to feed greedily. How about Regulus ? 7 did he
not observe the auguries, and yet was taken prisoner?
Mancinus showed due respect for religion, and yet was
given up to the enemy and sent under the yoke.8

1 Cybele.

1 Twelve priests who every year went round the fields and prayed
for fertility. Some fragments of their songs, which have been
preserved, belong to the earliest records of the Latin language.

3 Salii (the leapers), priests of Mars.
.* The sacred chickens (pullf) kept for taking the auspices.

5 Ironical. 8 See notes on ch. vii.

7 M. Atilius Regulus, taken prisoner and tortured by the Car-
thaginians in the first Punic war (Horace, Odes, iii. 5).

8 C. Hostilius Mancinus (consul 137 B.C.), defeated before

MINUCIUS FELIX 75

Paulus also found the chickens very greedy, but was
defeated at Cannae with the greater part of his army.1
Gaius Caesar,2 although the auguries and auspices were
against his crossing to Africa before winter, paid no
attention to them ; the result was that his voyage was
more favourable and his victory speedier.

"And what and how much shall I tell you about
oracles ? Amphiaraus 3 predicted what was to happen after
his death, but did not know that he would be betrayed by
his wife for the sake of a necklace. The blind Tiresias,4
who could not see the present, saw the future. Ennius
invented the answers of the Pythian Apollo about
Pyrrhus,5 although the god had long before that ceased
to deliver oracles in verse ; for his cautious and am-
biguous oracle was no longer credited when men began
to be better educated and less credulous. Demosthenes
also, being aware that the oracular responses were mere
inventions, complained that the Pythian priestess was
'a philippiser.' 6

" Sometimes, however, auspices or oracles have hit the
truth, and amidst a host of lies chance may seem to have

Numantia in Spain, concluded a treaty, but the Romans refused to
ratify it and handed him over to the enemy, who generously released
him.

1 Lucius ^Emilius Paulus, defeated by Hannibal in a battle near
Cannae.

* Gaius Julius Caesar, the great general and statesman.

3 A famous soothsayer who, having been warned by the gods that
he would lose his life if he took part in the expedition of the Seven
against Thebes, hid himself to escape death. But his wife Eriphyle,
tempted by the offer of a gold necklace, betrayed his hiding-place.
Amphiaraus was compelled to march against Thebes, and was
swallowed up in the earth.

4 A celebrated Theban soothsayer.

5 This well-known oracle ran : Aio te Aeacida Romanes vincere
fosse, which might mean " I declare that you, O Pyrrhus, can
conquer the Romans" or "that the Romans can conquer you."

' i. e. favoured Philip of Macedon.

76 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

played the part of design. Nevertheless, I will attempt
to unearth and bring into the light of day the source of
that error and perverseness, the origin of all the present
obscurity.

"There exist certain wandering, unclean spirits,1 who
have lost their heavenly activities from being weighed
down by earthly passions and disorders. So then these
spirits, burdened with sin and steeped in vice, who have
sacrificed their original simplicity, being themselves lost,
unceasingly strive to destroy others, as a consolation for
their own misfortune; depraved themselves, they strive
to communicate error and depravity to others ; estranged
from God, they strive to alienate others by the introduc-
tion of vicious forms of religion. Poets 2 know these
spirits as " demons," philosophers discuss their existence,
and Socrates recognized it by avoiding or pursuing a
certain course of action in accordance with the will and
command of the demon who was always by his side.3
The magi also are not only aware of the existence of
demons, but all their pretended miracles are the work of
these spirits; by their inspiration and influence they
perform jugglers' tricks, causing things which do not
exist to appear and things which do exist to disappear.
Hostanes,4 the chief of these magi by reason of his
eloquence and performances, renders to the true god the
homage that he deserves; he also recognizes that

1 See also Tertullian, Apol. 22 ; Lactantius, Div. Inst. ii. 14.

* e.g. Hesiod, Works and Days, 122.

3 For the " demon " of Socrates, see Plato, Apology, 19, p. 31 D ;
Apuleius, De Deo Socratis, 17. According to Plato, the demon only
exercised powers of dissuasion, not of persuasion. On the subject
generally, see the exhaustive article "Demons and Spirits" in
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.

* The first writer on the art of magic. He lived in the time of
Xerxes, whom he accompanied on his expedition to Greece.

MINUCIUS FELIX 77

the angels, that is, servants and messengers, guard the
throne of God * and stand by his side to worship, terrified
and trembling at a sign or look from their master.
Hostanes has also told us of earthly demons, wandering
spirits, the enemies of mankind. Does not Plato, who
thought it hard to find God, find it easy to tell of angels
and demons ? Does he not, in the dialogue Symposium?
even attempt to define their nature ? He assumes that
it is a substance midway between mortal and immortal
substance, that is, between body and spirit, an admixture
or compound of the heaviness of earth and the lightness
of heaven ; from this, he tells us, love is fashioned,
penetrates the human heart, excites the senses, creates
the passions, and inspires the ardour of desire.

XXVII. " Now these unclean spirits, the demons, as
the magi and philosophers have shown, conceal them-
selves in statues and consecrated images, and by their
spiritual influence acquire the authority of a present
divinity. At one time they inspire the soothsayers, at
another take up their abode in the temples, sometimes
animate the fibres of the victims' entrails, direct the flight
of birds, control the lots, compose oracles, enveloped in
a mist of untruth. For they both deceive and are de-
ceived ; being ignorant of the pure truth, to their own
destruction they are afraid to confess that which they do
know. Thus they weigh down men's minds and draw
them from heaven, call them away from the true god to
material things, disturb their lives and trouble their
sleep; stealthily creeping into men's bodies, thanks to
their rarefied and subtle nature, they counterfeit diseases,

1 Reading del sedem tueri eiusgue . . . Halm gives dei scd vert,
eius ..." messengers of God, but the true god . . ."
1 202 E.

78 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

terrify the imagination, rack the limbs, to compel
men to worship them ; then, sated with the fumes from
the altars and the slaughter of beasts, they undo what
they have tied themselves, so as to appear to have effected
a cure. They are also responsible for the madmen,
whom you see running out into the streets, themselves
soothsayers of a kind but without a temple, raging, ranting,
whirling round in the dance ; * there is the same demo-
niacal possession, but the object of the frenzy is different.
Similarly, they are the origin of such stories as you
recently mentioned — Jupiter's demand in a dream for
the renewal of his games, the appearance of Castor and
Pollux on horseback, the boat following the matron's
girdle.2 To all these things, as most of you are aware,
the demons themselves plead guilty, when they are
driven out of our bodies by the compelling force of our
words and the fervour of our speech. Saturn, Serapis,
Jupiter, and whatsoever demons you worship, when
overcome by pain confess what they are ; they certainly
would not lie and bring disgrace upon themselves,
especially when any of you were present. You may
believe their own testimony that they are demons, when
they confess the truth about themselves ; for when ad-
jured by the only true god, against their will, poor
wretches, they quake with fear in men's bodies, and
either come forth at once or gradually disappear, ac-
cording as the faith of the sufferer assists or the grace of
the healer inspires. Thus they avoid the company of
Christians, whom they formerly attacked from a distance
in their meetings with your assistance. Again, since it is

1 Lucan, Pharsalia, v. 169 ; Apuleius, Metam. viii. 27 ; compare
the dancing dervishes of the East.
* See ch. vii.

MINUCIUS FELIX 79

natural to hate those whom you fear and, if possible, to
assail those whom you hate,1 they make their way into
the minds of the ignorant and implant hatred of us
secretly by the agency of fear. Thus they take possession
of men's souls and block up their hearts, so that they
may begin to hate us before they know us ; for they are
afraid that, when they do know us, they may either be
inclined to imitate us or at least unable to condemn us.2
XXVIII. " How unfair it is to pass judgement, as you
do, upon what is unknown and unexamined, you can
judge from our own confession. For we were once the
same as you; blind and ignorant, our opinions were
once the same as yours. We believed that the Christians
worshipped monsters, ate the flesh of infants, and
practised incest at their feasts. We did not understand
that these tales were always being spread abroad by the
demons, without examination or proof; we did not
remember that, during all this time, no one came forward
to betray the secret, although he would not only have
been forgiven but also rewarded for his information.
Christianity is so far from being an evil, that its followers,
when accused, show neither shame nor fear; their one
regret is that they have not become Christians sooner.
We, however, when undertaking the defence and advo-
cacy of certain sacrilegious and incestuous persons, even
of parricides, did not think that Christians ought to be
given a hearing at all. Sometimes, out of pity for them,
we treated them with even greater cruelty, torturing them
to force them to deny their faith, so as to save their
lives. In their case the practice of torture was reversed ;
it was employed not to elicit the truth, but to compel
people to lie. If any one, weaker than his neighbours,
1 Cicero, De Off. ii. 7. z Tertullian, Apol.

8o THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

crushed and overwhelmed by suffering, abjured his faith,
we looked upon him with favour, as if in renouncing the
name x he had atoned for all his crimes. Do you under-
stand that we once thought and acted as you do now ?
whereas, if reason and not the prompting of a demon had
controlled our decision, Christians should rather have
been forced, not to disavow their faith, but to confess
their incests, their sinful rites, their sacrifice of children.
It is with these and such-like fables that these same
demons have filled the ears of the ignorant to our
prejudice, to excite horror and indignation against us.
And no wonder ; since rumour, which ever feeds on the
lies that are spread about but is put an end to by
the manifestation <5f the truth, is equally the work of
demons ; it is they who propagate and keep alive false
reports.

" This is the origin of the story which you say you have
heard — our deification of an ass's head. Who would be
so foolish as to worship such a thing ? or even still more
foolish and believe it — except yourselves, who keep whole
asses as sacred in your stables together with your or their
Epona,2 and piously decorate them in company with
Isis,3 who sacrifice oxen and sheep and worship their
heads, and set up as gods beings half-goats, half-men,4
or with dogs' and lions' faces ? 5 Do you not, like the
Egyptians, worship and feed the bull Apis ? 6 Nor do

1 That is, of a Christian.

2 Epona, the goddess of horses and asses ; see Tertullian, Apol. 16.
1 Reading decoratis. There are various readings : MS. dcvoratis,

' ' you eat cakes made in the form of an ass, together with imitations
of Isis" ; devotatis, " you consecrate."

4 Pan and the Satyrs.

' Oriental divinities such as Anubis, Mithras : see Tertullian,
Apol. 1 6.

' The sacred Ox, which was kept in a temple at Memphis. It

MINUCIUS FELIX 81

you condemn their rites instituted in honour of serpents,
crocodiles, and other beasts, birds, and fishes, the penalty
for killing any one of which gods is death.1 Again,
like these same Egyptians, you are guilty of certain
shameful acts of which you accuse us. These and the
like infamous practices we may not even hear described ;
many of us think it a disgrace to speak of them even in
our own defence. You falsely allege that acts are com-
mitted by modest, clean-living persons, such as we should
deem incredible, if your own acts did not demonstrate
their possibility.

XXIX. " As to the worship of a criminal and his cross
with which you charge our religion, you are far from the
truth in thinking either that a criminal deserved, or that a
mortal had the power, to be believed to be a god.
Truly, the man deserves pity who rests all his hopes on
a mere mortal, with whose death all his power of render-
ing assistance is at an end ! The Egyptians certainly
select one of themselves as an object of worship, court
his favour alone, consult him about everything, sacrifice
victims to him.2 But this man, whom others regard as
a god, is certainly only a man in his own eyes, whether
he will or no ; for even if he can dupe another person's
conscience he cannot deceive his own. Even kings
and princes are not only hailed as great and elect,
names to which they have a right, but are falsely called
gods by disgraceful flatterers ; whereas honour would be
the truest homage to a famous man, and affection the

was said to be an incarnation of Osiris. When twenty-five years
old, he drowned himself in the Nile, and another representative was
provided.

1 Under the empire many Egyptian and Oriental cults mnde their
way into Italy and the empire.

* Eusebius, Prcep. Ev. iii. 4.
T

82 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

most agreeable tribute that could be offered to the
worthiest. Thus they invoke the godhead of these men,
offer up supplication at their images, implore the aid of
their genius (that is, their demon), and it is more
dangerous to swear falsely by the genius of the emperor
than by that of Jupiter.

"We neither worship crosses nor wish for them.
Certainly, you, who consecrate gods of wood, may
perhaps worship wooden crosses as parts of your gods.
For what are your standards, banners, and ensigns but
gilded and decorated crosses ? Your trophies of victory
not only present the appearance of a simple cross but also
that of one crucified. Certainly, we see the sign of the
cross represented in a natural manner on a ship, when it
rides over the waves with swelling sails or glides along
gently with outspread oars : again, when a yoke is set up,
it is like the sign of the cross, and in like manner when a
man with outstretched hands worships God with a pure
heart. Thus, there is either some natural explanation of
the sign of the cross or it embodies the form of your
religion.

XXX. " I should like to meet 1 the man who says or
believes that initiation into Christianity is accompanied
by the murder of an infant and the drinking of its blood.
Do you think it possible that so tender, so small a body
could receive such fatal wounds, that any one could have
the heart to kill one just born, hardly entered upon life,
and shed and drink its fresh young blood ? No one can
believe this unless he himself were capable of doing so.
I see your newly born sons exposed by you to wild beasts
and birds of prey, or cruelly strangled to death. There

1 Convenire as a legal term = to bring an action again.-t ; here, to
have an explanation with.

MINUCIUS FELIX 83

are also women among you who, by taking certain drugs,
destroy the beginnings of the future human being while
it is still in the womb and are guilty of infanticide before
they are mothers.

" These practices have certainly come down to you from
your gods ; for Saturn did not expose his children, but
devoured them. Not without reason, therefore, in certain
parts of Africa, children were sacrificed to him by their
parents, their cries being stifled with kisses and caresses,
to prevent the sacrifice of a victim in tears.1 The
Taurians of Pontus2 and the Egyptian King Busiris3 were
in the habit of sacrificing strangers ; the Gauls offered
human, or rather inhuman, victims to Mercury ; 4 the
Romans buried alive a Greek and Gallic man and woman
by way of sacrifice,6 and even at the present day the
worship of Jupiter Latiaris 6 is accompanied by homicide,
and, as is worthy of the son of Saturn, he battens on the
blood of the evil-doer and the criminal. I believe that it
was he who inspired Catiline 7 to enter into a league of
blood with the conspirators ; that it was due to him that
the rites of Bellona 8 were steeped in draughts of human
gore, and that human blood was used to cure epilepsy,9

1 Saturn is here identified with Baal or Moloch.

* The inhabitants of the Tauric Chersonese, the modern Crimea,
who sacrificed shipwrecked strangers to Artemis.

8 A fabulous king of Egypt, who sacrificed strangers, and was
himself slain by Hercules.

* Under the name of Teutates.

6 Under the empire, the practice still existed of burying a man
and a woman of the country with which the Romans were at war
(Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxviii. 12; Livy, xxii. 57).

6 See ch. xxiii.

7 L. Sergius Catilina, the notorious revolutionary.

8 The goddess of war. Her priests gashed their arms and legs
and poured their blood upon the altar while sacrificing to her.

* Comitialis morbus : so called because if a case occurred during
the meeting of a public assembly it was at once dissolved.

84 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

a remedy worse than the disease. Such people resemble
those who devour wild beasts from the arena, smeared
and stained with blood or fattened with the limbs and
entrails of men. We are not allowed either to see or
hear of homicide, and we are so averse from bloodshed
that we even abstain from the blood of those animals
which serve us for food.

XXXI. " The story of our incestuous banquet is a mon-
strous lie, invented by a league of demons to injure us,
in order that our reputation for chastity might be sullied
by charges of infamous and disgusting practices, and
that, before they had learnt the truth, men might be
driven to shun us owing to the terror inspired by unut-
terable suggestions. Thus also your friend Fronto l has
not given evidence as one who affirms a thing, but has
scattered abuse broadcast like a public speaker ; for such
practices rather originated amongst people like yourselves.
In Persia, a man is allowed to marry his mother, in Egypt
and Athens his sister. Your histories and tragedies,
which you eagerly read and listen to, treat incest as
something to be proud of ; hence it is that you worship
incestuous gods, united to mother, daughter, and sister.
Not without reason, then, is incest often detected amongst
you, but always permitted. We, on the other hand,
show our modesty not only outwardly but inwardly ;
we willingly cleave to one marriage-tie ; in the desire to
have children, we have only one wife — or else none.
Our banquets are conducted not only with modesty, but
also with sobriety ; we indulge in no luxurious feasts,
nor spin out our meals in drinking, but temper our
gaiety with seriousness. Our language is pure, our
body even more so, and most of us practise perpetual
1 See ch. ix.

MINUCIUS FELIX 85

virginity without boasting of it ; so far from our having
any desire for incest, even a chaste and legitimate union
calls forth a blush of shame.

" Nor, again, are we composed of the lowest dregs of
the people, even if we refuse your offices and dignities •
nor do we belong to any faction, if we recognize only
one virtue,1 and are as quiet when assembled together
as by ourselves ; nor are we talkative in corners,2 if
you are either ashamed or afraid to listen to us in
public.

"The fact that our number is increasing daily, is no
proof of error, but evidence of merit ; for when men
live an honourable life, their own friends remain constant
and are joined by others. Lastly, we easily recognize each
other, not by external marks, as you imagine, but by the
stamp of innocence and modesty; we love one another
(which annoys you), since we do not know how to hate ;
we call ourselves brethren (which excites your ill-will),
as being children of one and the same father, God, as
showing the same faith, as coheirs of the same hope.3
Whereas you, on the contrary, do not recognize each
other, give way to outbursts of mutual hatred, and only
acknowledge any ties of brotherhood when leagued to-
gether for murder.

XXXII. " Further, do you think that we wish to conceal
the objects of our worship, because we have neither
temples nor altars ? By what image am I to represent
God, since, rightly considered, man himself is the image of
God ? What temple am I to erect to him, since the whole

1 (Or omitting bonum as a gloss), "if we are all of one mind " ;
cp. Philippians ii. 2 ; Romans xv. 5.

2 " i . e. yon cannot reproach us for meeting in secret, if . . . "

3 I Peter iii. 7 ; Romans viii. 17.

86 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

of this world, which has been fashioned by him, is un-
able to contain him? Am I to confine such might and
majesty within the limits of a small temple, while I
myself, a mere man, have a more spacious dwelling-place ?
Is not the mind a better place of dedication, the heart a
better place for his consecration ? Am I to offer to God
the sacrifices and victims which he has provided for our
use, and reject his gifts? This would be ungrateful,
since the most acceptable sacrifice is a good heart, a
clean spirit. Therefore, the man who practises innocence,
offers prayer to God; he who practises justice, offers
libation to him ; he who abstains from wrongdoing,
propitiates him ; the man who rescues another from
danger, sacrifices the most excellent victim. These are
our sacrifices, these are our rites ; he who is most just
amongst us is the most religious.

" But, you say, we neither see nor show to others the
God whom we worship. This is just the reason why we
believe in him ; although we cannot see him, we feel
that he exists. In his works and in all the changes of the
universe we behold his ever-present influence, when it
thunders and lightens, when the thunderbolt falls, when
the sky is clear. You need not wonder if you do not
see God ; the wind and blasts drive, shake, and agitate
everything, but the wind and blasts are not visible to us.
Again, we cannot even look into the sun, which is the
origin of vision ; our powers of sight are impaired by its
rays, our eyes are weakened by gazing at it, and, if we
look at it too long, we are unable to see at all. Could
you endure the sight of the creator of the sun himself,
the source of light, you who turn away from his lightnings
and hide yourself from his thunderbolts ? Do you expect
to look upon God with the eyes of the flesh, when you

MINUCIUS FELIX 87

can neither behold nor grasp your own soul, by which
you are quickened and speak ? 1

" But again, you say, God is ignorant of man's actions ;.
he who is seated in heaven can neither visit all nor know
each one. You are wrong, O man, you are mistaken ;
God is everywhere near, since all things in heaven and
earth and all things outside the limits of the world are full
of him ; he is everywhere not only near us, but every-
where within us. Look again at the sun ; although
stationary in heaven, its light is shed over every land ;
present everywhere alike, it mingles with all, and its
brightness is never dimmed. God, the creator and
examiner of all things, from whom nothing can be hid,
must with far greater reason be present in the darkness,
be present in our thoughts, which are as it were a second
darkness ! We not only act under his inspection, but —
I had almost said — live with him.2

XXXI II. "And let us not natter ourselves as to our
numbers ; to ourselves we seem many, but to God very
few. We separate peoples and nations ; God looks upon
the entire world as one family. Kings learn the condition
of their empire from various official reports of ministers,
but God has no need of such information ; 3 we live not
only under his eyes, but in his bosom.

" In the case of the Jews, you assert that their worship
of only one God with altars and temples and the most
scrupulous observances profited them nothing. It
would show ignorance and be a great mistake on your
part, either having forgotten or never having known their
past, to remember only their present history. For they,

1 Cicero, Pro Milone, 84.

2 Acts xvii. 28 : " In him we live and move and have our being."
* Or, " such informers," indicia being = indices.

88 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

too, had learnt to know 1 our God, for he is the god
of all ; and as long as they worshipped him with a pure
heart, in innocence and piety, as long as they obeyed his
salutary precepts, their numbers, at first few, increased
enormously ; once poor, they became rich ; once slaves,
they became kings ; few in numbers and unarmed they
overwhelmed armed hosts, and pursued them as they fled,
at the bidding of God and with the assistance of the
elements.2 Read their writings again, either (passing
over ancient authors) the works of Flavius Josephus,3
or, if you prefer Romans, consult the remarks of Antonius
Julianus 4 on the Jews ; you will find that their ill fortune
was due to their own perversity, that nothing happened
to them which had not been foretold as the consequence
of persisting in their obstinacy. Thus you will under-
stand that they deserted God before they were deserted
by him ; that they have not been taken captive with
their god, as you impiously put it, but have been handed
over by God, as deserters from his teaching, to the mercy
of their enemies

XXXIV. " Again, as to the destruction of the world by
fire, it is a mistake of the vulgar either to find it difficult
to believe or to disbelieve altogether that fire can sud-
denly fall from heaven.5 Who among the philosophers
has any doubt or is ignorant that all things that are born
die ; that all things that are made perish ; that the

1 Reading experti sunt.
* Joshua x. ; Judges vii.

3 The- well-known historian, who flourished during the reign of
Vespasian.

4 His identity is doubtful : (l) a famous rhetorician of the time of
Hadrian ; (2) the governor of Judaea at the time of the siege of
Jerusalem, mentioned by losephus.

6 No satisfactory emendation or version of the text has been
suggested.

MINUCIUS FELIX 89

heavens and all that is therein, as they once came
into existence, will be devoured by fire, if the water of the
sea or of the springs ceases to nourish them?1 The
Stoics firmly maintain that, when the supply of moisture
is exhausted, the whole world will be consumed by fire ;
the Epicureans also hold the same opinion about the
conflagration of the elements and the destruction of
the world.2 Plato 3 tells us that the different parts of the
world are alternately overwhelmed by flood and fire ;
and although he asserts that the universe itself was
fashioned eternal and indissoluble, he adds that it can be
dissolved and ended, but only by God who created it.
So it would be nothing wonderful, if this vast structure
should be destroyed by him who erected it.

" You see that the arguments of the philosophers are
the same as our own ; although it is not we who have
followed in their footsteps, but they who have given us a
shadowy imitation, a garbled truth taken from the divine
predictions of the prophets. Similarly, your most famous
philosophers, Pythagoras first 4 and especially Plato,5 have
handed down an account of the dogma of the resurrection
in a corrupt and mutilated form ; according to them,
after the dissolution of the body only the soul abides for
ever and often passes into fresh bodies. A further
distortion of the truth is that the souls of men return
to the bodies of cattle, birds, and beasts : such an idea
rather deserves the ridicule of a buffoon than the serious
consideration of a philosopher. However, in view of the

1 Cicero, Nat. Dear. ii. 46, iii. 14. The text of the whole passage
is corrupt.

1 Lucretius, v. 407.

3 Timaeus, 22 c.

4 Known as the author of the theory of the transmigration of
souls.

* Republic, 620 D.

9o THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

subject before us, it is enough that even in this your
philosophers are in agreement with us to a certain extent.
Besides, who is so foolish or so stupid as to venture
to dispute that, as man could be originally made by
God, so he can be afterwards remade by him ? that man
is nothing after death, as he was nothing before birth ?
that as he could be born from nothing, so he can be
remade from nothing ? Besides, it is easier to renew what
has once existed than to call it into existence. Do you
believe that whenever anything is withdrawn from our
feeble eyes, it is looked upon by God as permanently
lost ? The body, whether it is reduced to dust, is resolved
into vapour, becomes a heap of ashes, or vanishes in
smoke, is no longer visible to us, but it still exists for
God, who preserves its elements. Nor are we, as you
imagine, afraid of any injury from the manner ot
burial, but we practise the old and better custom of
interment.

" Consider again how, as a consolation for us, the entire
kingdom of nature foreshadows the resurrection. The
sun sinks and rises again, the stars disappear and return :
flowers die and revive : trees decay and again put forth
leaves : seeds do not come up again until they rot. The
body in the grave is like a tree in winter ; both conceal
their new life under an apparent dryness. Why are you
so anxious that it should revive and return during the
cruel winter ? The body also has its spring, which we
must wait for.

" I am aware that most men, conscious of what they
deserve, hope rather than believe that they will not exist
after death ; they prefer total annihilation to resurrection
with punishments to follow. Their error is aggravated
by the immunity enjoyed by them in the world and by

MINUCIUS FELIX 91

the infinite patience of God, whose judgement the slower
it is the juster it is.

XXXV. "And yet, in the writings of the learned 1 and
the works of the poets,2 we are reminded of the river of
fire,3 of the heat of the Stygian Lake with its nine circles
prepared as an eternal punishment, known from the
revelations of demons and the oracles of the prophets.
Hence also it is that the poets represent King Jupiter
himself swearing solemnly by the burning shores of
Styx and its black abyss ; aware of the punishment
destined for him and his votaries, he shudders.4 And
these torments are unending and unlimited ; the fire, as if
endowed with intelligence, consumes and renovates men's
limbs, devours and at the same feeds them. As the
lightning flash strikes the body and does not consume it,
as the fires of ^Etna, Vesuvius, and other volcanoes burn
without being exhausted, so that avenging fire does not
devour the bodies on which it feeds, but is nourished by
forms which, though mangled, are still unconsumed.
No one, except an atheist, can have any doubt that
those who are ignorant of God deserve to be tortured for
their impiety and injustice, since it is as great a crime
to be ignorant of the father and lord of all as to insult
him. And although ignorance of God is enough to
deserve punishment, just as knowledge of him is an aid
to pardon, yet, if we Christians be compared with you,
although the training of some is inferior to yours, on
the whole we shall be found far better. You prohibit
adultery and yet commit it ; we are born to be the
husbands of our own wives alone; you punish crimes

1 Plato, Pfuedo, 112 D.

2 Virgil, ALneid, vi. 323 ; Odyssey, v. 185.

3 Pyriphlegethon.

4 Iliad, xiv. 271 ; Odyssey, v. 185 ; Virgil, &neid, vi. 323.

92 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

when committed, which amongst us it is a sin even
to think of; you are afraid of witnesses, we are afraid of
conscience alone, which is always with us; lastly, the
prisons are crowded with your followers, while they
do not contain a single Christian, unless he be a renegade
or one whose religion is his crime.

XXXVI. " Nor should any one either seek consolation
or excuse his lot by an appeal to fate; granting that
one's lot depends on fortune, yet the mind is free ; so
that it is a man's action, not his position that is judged.
For what else is fate but what God has ' said ' about
each of us? Since he has a foreknowledge of our
character, he can also determine the destinies of indivi-
duals according to their qualities and deserts. Thus, in
our case it is not our nativity that is punished, but our
natural disposition that bears the penalty. I will say no
more about fate; if in the circumstances it is not
sufficient, we will discuss the matter more fully and at
greater length on another occasion.1 Further, as to the
charge that most of us are paupers, this is no shame, but
our glory ; for as the mind is enervated by luxury, so it is
strengthened by frugality. And yet who can be poor
if he wants nothing, if he does not long for what is
another's, if he is rich in the sight of God ? z That man
rather is poor who, though he has great possessions,
desires more. But I will tell you what I think ; no one
can be as poor as he was born. Birds live without
possessing anything of their own, cattle obtain pasture
daily; and yet they are all created for our use, and
we possess all if we do not desire it.3 Therefore, as

1 In his treatise De Fata ; see Introduction § 2.

1 Or, "rich in God," that is in the possession of his favour.

3 That is, " They are all ours, although we do not long for them."

MINUCIUS FELIX 93

a man, when walking, makes the greater progress the more
lightly he is burdened, so in this journey of life the man
who lightens his burden by poverty is happier than one
who groans beneath the weight of riches. And yet,
if we thought it useful, we might ask for wealth from God ;
certainly he to whom all belongs could grant us a share of
it. But we prefer to despise wealth than to possess it ;
we rather desire innocence and demand patience ; we
would rather be virtuous than extravagant.

" Our consciousness and endurance of the infirmities of
our human frame are no punishment, but warfare. Cour-
age is strengthened by infirmities and calamity is
frequently the school of valour ; lastly, our powers, both
mental and bodily, are impaired by lack of exercise.
Thus all your heroes, whom you commend as examples,
became famous and renowned through their misfortunes.
And so God is neither unable to help us nor does he
disdain to do so, since he is the ruler of all and loves his
people ; he thoroughly examines each one in adversity,
weighs each man's disposition in the balance of peril, tests
his character even unto death, convinced that nothing can
be lost for him. Thus, as gold is tried by fire, so we are
tested by dangers.

XXXVII. "What a beautiful sight for God to see,1 when
the Christian wrestles with pain, braves threats, punishment
and torture, scornfully derides 2 the din at his execution
and the horrible sight of the executioner ; when he uplifts
the banner of freedom against kings and princes, yielding
to God alone, to whom he belongs ; when, in triumph
and victorious, he mocks the judge who has pronounced
sentence against him. For he is the conqueror who has

1 Imitated from Seneca, De Prov. 2.
* Reading insultat.

94 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

obtained what he desires. Where is the soldier who does
not face danger more boldly under the eyes of his com-
mander? For no one obtains a reward before he has
been tested. And yet a general cannot give what he does
not possess ; he cannot prolong life, although he can
reward service. But the soldier of God is neither aban-
doned in trouble nor destroyed by death. Thus the
Christian may appear miserable, but cannot be proved
so. You yourselves extol to the skies men sorely tried
by misfortune, such as Mucius Scsevola,1 who, when he
had made a mistake in his attempt on the king, would
have perished in the midst of the enemy, had he not
sacrificed his right hand. And how many of our com-
munity have suffered, without a groan, the loss not only
of their right hand but the destruction of their whole body
by fire, although they had it in their power to obtain their
release? Need I compare men with Mucius, Aquilius,2
and Regulus ? Why, even our lads and women, in their
inspired endurance of suffering, laugh to scorn crucifixion,
tortures, wild beasts, and all the terrors of punishment.
And you, poor wretches, you cannot understand that
there is no one who would desire to undergo punishment
without reason or could endure torture without the help
of God.

" But perhaps you are deceived by the fact that many
who know not God possess wealth in abundance, are full

1 Livy, ii. 12. When threatened by Porsena, Scavola thrust his
right hand into a blazing fire and held it there till it was burnt off.
This so impressed Porsena that he let Mucius go free. The incident
was often represented in the arena, the part of Mucius being taken
by a condemned criminal, preferably a Christian.

2 Manius Aquilius Nepos (consul 101 B.C.), sent to Asia to restore
to the throne the kings deposed by Mithradates. He was betrayed
into the hands of the latter, and, after being led about on the back
of an ass, was put to death by molten gold poured down his throat.

MINUCIUS FELIX 95

of honours, and enjoy great authority. These unhappy
men are uplifted the higher, that their fall may be greater.1
They are like victims fattened for punishment or crowned
for sacrifice. So it is that some are raised to the throne
and absolute power, in order that their profligate minds,
in the unrestrained exercise of their authority, may freely
barter away their natural character. For without the
knowledge of God what happiness can be lasting, since
this is death?2 Like a dream it slips away, before
we can grasp it. Are you a king? You yourself feel
as much fear as you inspire in others ; however numer-
ous your body-guard, you are left alone to face danger.
Are you rich ? It is dangerous to trust fortune, and
great store of provisions for the brief journey of life is not
a help, but a burden. Are you proud of your fasces 3
and purple? It is a vain error of man and an empty
show of rank to shine in purple, while the mind is vile.
Are you blessed with noble ancestors ? Do you boast of
your parents? But we are all born equal; it is virtue
alone that distinguishes us.

" So then we, whose reputation depends upon our
decent mode of life, rightly abstain from evil pleasures,
from your processions and spectacles, which we know
are derived from your religious rites, and whose pernicious
allurements we condemn. At the curule games,4 who
can help being horrified at the frenzy of the brawling
populace and, at the gladiatorial shows, at the training

1 Juvenal, x, 106.

1 Cum mors sit : this may mean (a) ignorance of God is equiva-
lent to death ; (6) since death always awaits us and so our earthly
happiness cannot last. Others omit mors and read cum sit somnio
similis, "since it [happiness] is like a dream."

3 The bundle of rods and an axe, carried before the chief magi-
strate.

* The games in the circus.

96 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF

for murder? On the stage, even, there is the same
frenzy, while the range of vice is even wider. At one
time the actor describes or exemplifies adultery, at
another an effeminate player inspires the passion he
portrays ; he dishonours your gods by investing them
with every vice — adultery, love-sick sighs, and hatred ;
in his pretended grief he calls forth your tears by his
senseless nods and gestures. Thus, in real life, you
clamour for a man's death ; on the stage you weep at it.

XXXVIII. "As for our contempt for the sacrificial
remains and the wine that has already been used in
libations, it is no confession of fear but a declaration of
true independence. For although everything that is
created, as being the imperishable gift of God, is proof
against corruption, we abstain from your offerings, lest
any one may think that we acknowledge the demons to
whom libations are poured or are ashamed of our own
religion.

" Who doubts that we are fond of the flowers of spring,
when we pluck the early rose, lily, and any other flower
of delightful scent and colour ? for we use them free and
loose or wear them round our necks as delicate garlands.
You must excuse us for not crowning our heads ; we are
in the habit of inhaling the sweet perfume of a flower, not
of using the back of the head or the hair as a means of
conveying it.1 Nor do we crown our dead. In regard
to this, I am the more surprised at your applying a torch
to one who still feels, or offering a garland to one who
does not, since those who are happy need no flowers,
while those who are unhappy take no pleasure in them.
On the other hand, we arrange our funerals as simply as
our lives ; we place no fading garland upon the grave,
but await from God an undying crown of immortal
1 Tertullian, Apol. 42.

MINUCIUS FELIX 97

flowers ; quiet, modest, confident in the generosity of our
God, we enliven our hope of future happiness by faith in
his ever-present majesty. Thus we feel assured of our
resurrection in blessedness and live in contemplation of
the future.

" Now let Socrates see to it,1 the buffoon of Athens,
who confessed that he knew nothing, although he boasted
of the support of a spirit of lies ; let Arcesilas, Carneades,
Pyrrho,2 and all the host of Academicians argue the
matter ; let Simonides shelve the question for ever. We
despise the superciliousness of the philosophers, whom we
know as corrupters and adulterers, tyrants, and always
ready to declaim against vices that are really their own.
We do not show our wisdom in our dress but in our
heart ; we do not proclaim great things but live them ;
and are proud of having obtained what philosophers have
sought with their utmost efforts but have failed to find.
Why should we be ungrateful, why should we be dis-
satisfied, seeing that the truth about the godhead has
attained maturity in our times? Let us enjoy our
happiness and avoid excess 3 in our opinions ; let super-
stition be restrained, let impiety be driven out, let true
religion be preserved." 4

XXXIX. After Octavius had finished, for some time we
remained in amazed silence, with our eyes intently fixed
upon him ; as for myself, I was lost in overwhelming
admiration at the skill with which he backed up his
principles, which can be more easily felt than expressed
in words, by a wealth of argument, examples, and

1 i.e. " Let Socrates undertake to answer us" (see ch. xiii.). The
term "Attic buffoon" was applied to Socrates by Zeno (Cicero,
Nat. Dear. i. 34).

* Pyrrho, the founder of the most thoroughgoing sceptical school.
8 " Let us be neither superstitious nor heathen."

• A rare use of rescructur.

G

98 THE 'OCTAVIUS' OF MINUCIUS FELIX

quotation from authorities ; at the manner in which he
repelled the attacks of the ill-disposed with their own
weapons, namely those of the philosophers, and demon-
strated that the truth was not only easy to discover but
also agreeable.

XL. While I was silently turning over these things in
my mind, Csecilius burst out : " I congratulate my
friend Octavius most heartily, but I also congratulate
myself, nor need I wait for the verdict. I too, in like
manner, am victorious : for even if it seems audacious, I
also claim a victory. As he has gained the victory over me,
so have I triumphed over error. As to the main questions,
in regard to Providence and God I accept your belief ; I
recognize the purity of your sect, which is henceforth my
own. Even now there remain certain points, which
although no obstacle to the truth, must be discussed to
make my instruction complete. But as the sun is already
setting, we will deal with these points to-morrow ; they
will not detain us long, since we are agreed upon the
general issues."

"As for myself," said I, "I rejoice the more heartily
on behalf of all of us, that Octavius has also conquered
for my benefit, since I am relieved of the very disagree-
able duty of giving a verdict. I cannot, however,
adequately reward his merits by praising him in words •
the testimony of one man by himself carries little weight ;
Octavius possesses an excellent gift of God, which
inspired him when he spoke and assisted him to win
his case."

After this we retired, all three joyful and happy :
Csecilius because he believed, Octavius because he was
victorious, and I myself because of the conversion of the
one and the victory of the other.

INDEX

(The references are to pages)

I.— AUTHORS MENTIONED OR QUOTED
ANTONIUS Julianus, 88
Cassius (Hemina), 63

Nepos (Cornelius), 63

Chrysippus, 60

Demosthenes, 75
Diodorus (Siculus), 63

Ennius, 75
Euhemerus, 62

Flavius Josephus, 88
Fronto (Cirtensis), 42, 84

Hesiod, 60
Homer, 60, 70

Plato, 61, 70, 77, 89
Thallus, 63
Virgil, 58

II.— PROPER NAMES

Abdera, 39

Academicians, 48, 97

Acca Larentia, 73

Admetus, 71

Aeneas, 71

Aesculapius, 35, 69

Africa, 75, 83

Alexander the Great, 63

Allia, 38

Amphiaraus, 75

Anaxagoras, 59

Anaximenes, 59

Antisthenes, 59

Apis, 80

Apollo, 69, 71, (Delphian) 62,

(Pythian) 75
Apollonia, 59
Aquilius, 94
Arcesilas, 47, 97
Ariston, 60

Aristotle, 60

Arval brethren, 74

Assyrians, 74

Astarte, 35

Athenians, 40 ; Athens, 84

Atheos (Diagoras of Melos), 39

Babylonian (Diogenes), 60

Bellona, 83

Belus, 35

Briareus, 70

Britain, 55

Busiris, 83

Caecilius (= Q. Caecilius Nata-
lis), 28, 29, 30, 31,48,50,51.
52,98

Caesar (Gaius), 75

Camillus, 34

Cannae, 75

99

100

INDEX

Capitol, 36

Carneades, 48, 97

Carthaginians, 38

Castor, 70, 78

Catiline, 83

Centaurs, 61

Ceres, 35, 62, 63, 68

Chaldaeans, 35

Chimaera, 6 1

Christian(s), 43, 58, 6l, 78, 79,

91, 92, 93, 94

Chrysippus, 60

Cirta, 42

Claudius (P. Claudius Pulcher),

38,74

Cleanthes, 60
Cloacina, 73
Census, 73
Corybantes, 69
Crassus (M. Licinius Crassus),

38

Crete, 64, 71
Curtius (Marcus), 38
Cyclops, 71
Cyrene, 39
Cynocephalus (Anuhis), 68

Decii, the, 37

Democritus, 59

Diagoras of Melos, 39

Diana, 35, 69, (Ephesian) 69,

(Trivia) 69, (Tauric) 74
Dicte, 62

Diogenes of Apollonia, 59
Diogenes the Babylonian, 60
Dionysius (the Elder), 34

Earth (deity), 64

Egypt, 55, .65, 84 ; Egyptian
gods, 74, rites, 68 ; Egyptians,
74, 80, 8 1

Eleusis, 62 ; Eleusinian myste-
ries, 68 ; Eleusinians, 35

Ephesus, 69

Epicureans, 89 ; Epicurus, 59

Epidaurians, 35

Epona, 80

Erigone, 69
Etna, 91
Euhemerus, 62
Euphrates, 56

Febris (deity), 73
Feretrius (Jupiter), 69
Flaminius (Gaius), 38, 74
Flora, 73

Ganymede, 71

Gauls, 35

Great Mother ( = Cybele), 35

Greek, 63 ; Greeks, 74

Hammon (Jupiter), 69
Heaven (deity), 64
Heraclides of Poutus, 60
Hercules, 7°

Hiero (tyrant of Syracuse), 48
Hostanes, 76, 77
Hostilius (Tullus), 73
Hydra, 61

Idaean mother (Cybele), 37, 74
Indus (river), 56
Isis, 68, 80, (Pharian) 62
Italians, 64 ; Italy, 63

Janiculum, 64

Januarius, see Octavius

Janus, 63, 69

Jews, 43, 87, 88

Juba (King of Numidia), 64

Junius Pullus, 38

Juno, 60, 65, 69 (Argive, Phoe-
nician, Samian), 74

Jupiter, 37, 58,60, 62(Dictaean),
63, 64, 68, 69 (Hammon, Capi-
tolinus, Latiaris, Feretrius),
70, 71, 74 (Cretan), 78, 82,

Laomedon, 71
Larentia, Acca, 73
Latiaris (Jupiter), 69, 83
Latium, 64

INDEX

101

Liber (= Bacchus = wine), 63
Libera (= Proserpine), 68

Macedon, 63

Mancinus (C. Hostilius), 74

Mantua, 58

Marcus ( - M. Minucius Felix),

29, 3i

Maro (Virgil), 58
Mars, 70, 71, 74 (Thracian)
Medes, 74
Melos, 39

Mercury, 35, 69, 83
Mesopotamia, 56
Miletus, 59
Minerva, 60, 65, 69
Moors, 64
Mucius Scaevola, 94

Natalis, see Caecilius
Neptune, 60, 69, 71

Octavius (Januarius), 27, 29,31,

49, 50, 97, 98
Oeta (mount), 70
Orpheus, 60
Osiris, 68
Ostia, 28

Pallor (deity), 73

Pan, 69

Parthians, 38

Paulus (Lucius Aemilius), 75

Pavor (deity), 73

Persia, 84 ; Persians, 56, 74

Persaeus, 63

Perseus (King of Macedonia), 37

Phalaris, 34

Pharos, 62

Phoenician Juno, 74

Phrygians, 35

Picus, 73

Pilumnus, 73

Plautus, 49

Pollux, 70, 78

Pontus, 60, 83

Proculus, 64

Prodicus, 62

Protagoras, 39

Protesilaus, 45

Pullus (Junius), 38

Pyrrho, 97

Pyrrhus (King of Epirus), 75

Pythagoras, 59, 89

Pythian Apollo, 75

Regulus, 74, 94

Romans, 35, 36, 66 (their super-
stition), 71 (their injustice)
Romulus, 64, 72, 73
Rutilius (Rufus), 34

Salii, 74

Samian Juno, 74

Sarpedon, 70

Saturn, 63 et seq.t 69, 78, 83

Saturnia (city), 64

Scaevola, Mucius, 94

Serapis, 29, 78

Simonides, 48, 97

Socrates, 34, 47, 76, 97

Speusippus, 59

Stoics, 89

Strato, 59

Stygian Lake, 91

Styx, 91

Symposium (banquet), 77

Syrians, 35

Tatius, 73
Taurians, 35, 83
Tauric Diana, 74
Thales of Miletus, 59
Theban Pair, the (Eteocles

Polynices), 36
Theodorus of Gyrene, 39
Theophrastus, 60
Thracian Mars, 74
Tiberinus (deity), 73

Timaeus (Plato's), 6 1

Tiresias, 75

Trasimenus, 38

Trivia (Diana), 69

Trojan War, 70

loa INDEX

Venus, 63, 71 Xenophanes, 59

Vestals, 74 Xenophon, 60

Vesuvius, 91

Volumnus, 73 Zeno, 60

Vulcan, 60, 63, 69

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*St. Vincent of Lerins : The Commonitory. By T. H.
Bindley, D.D. as.

SERIES III.— LITURGICAL TEXTS.
EDITED BY C. L. FELTOE, D.D.

St. Ambrose : On the Mysteries and on the Sacraments.
By T. Thompson, B.D. 4*. 6d.

*The Apostolic Constitution and Cognate Documents, with
special reference to their Liturgical elements. By De
Lacy O'Leary, D.D. is. $d.

The Liturgy of the Eighth Book of the Apostolic Con-
stitution, commonly called the Clementine Liturgy.
By R. H. Cresswell. is. 6d.
The Pilgrimage of Etheria. By M. L. McClure.

*Bishop Sarapion's Prayer-Book. By the Rt. Rev. J.

Wordsworth, D.D. is. 6d.

(Other series in contemplation)

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